RoBERT CuLHANE .

MOST REV. FATHER PATRICK MURRAY (1865-1959) SUPERIOR GENERAL, C.SS.R., 1909-1947.

BIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE OVER THE YEARS I865-1909.

INTRODUCTION.

Sir Peter Lely was at his best when painting court beauties. He knew, too, how to play his cards with people that mattered. A favourite at the court of Charles I and of Charles II; he was still in favour during the Commonwealth. During this period his ability and tact stood one unusual test. Oliver Cromwell (according to a story evidently not maimed in the telling) charged him to include in· his portrait cc all these roughnesses, pim­ ples, and watts, and everything you see, otherwise I will never pay a farthing for it ». Father Patrick Murray was obliged to suffer the attentions of a photo­ grapher on a few occasions. Nothing would have annoyed him more than :> literary portrait, especially one leaning somewhat on his merits. cc 1 know n he said once, « that a necrology, with an account of one's virtues, is prescribed but I do hope that I will be spared one n. Fortunately in the past obedience to like wishes has been more honoured in the breach than in the observance. Had it not been so the world would have been the poorer for much of the literature that has nourished and improved millions. Literature is meant to express excellence. Let it not be thought for a moment that literature, even of the humblest type, is offered in the following pages. Apart from other considerations the circumstances of their composi­ tion prevent any such claim. They were written in moments spared from the rush and roar of missionary life. Moreover this account of· Father Murray does not claim to be critical in the scientific sense. A main part of my task was to collect information on Father Murray's life up to the time of his election as Superior General. This was no small difficulty. Records for his years in the Congregation were few and scattered and had to be collected, almost entirely, through correspondence. The Pro­ vincial archives of the Irish Province, though well kept for the period under review, date only from 18g8, the year of the foundation of the Province. 22

Despite the rigidly self-effacing quality of his character as Superior General, Father Murray could not effectively avoid public notice or ruthlessly suppress records of his activity. Before 1909 his freedom to avoid notice of every type was greater and makes the effort to build up his biography for those years extremely difficult. I have asked people who knew him well to state their views on him. Unfortunately most of the people who knew him best predeceased him. It must be borne in mind that he had reached the age of discretion before St. Teresa of the Infant Jesus was born. He outlived practically all his contemp~raries by a score of years. For the period Patrick Murray spent as a student in Maynooth and also to a considerable extent for the account of his vocation I had to depend much on the Curriculum Vitae which he wrote as a novice. This document needed delicate handling. In it dates and names of persons are scarcely ever given and scant attention is paid to chronology. The Curriculum runs to twenty two closely packed pages. The handwriting is neat and well formed but much smaller than that used by Father Murray in later years. One gets the impression that he is writing against time and is determined to cramp a lot of matter into a limited amount of paper. Spelling is faultless but the sentences suffer from haste. Clauses forgotten at first are loosely tagged on at the end. However, the meaning of the overburdened sentences is usually sufficiently clear. Giving the account of his vocation as a novice he is concerned almost exclusively with the impact opposition from his relatives had on his own state of soul at the time. The cc why n of the opposition is never explained. If anything the Curriculum is on this point likely to mislead one who has not the aid of independent information to interpret it. Fortunately, Father Murray did very clearly provide that information in later years: and espe­ cially in conversation with the Redemptoristine nuns in Dublin. Without this explanation, and the clear grasp the good Sisters got of it, the opposition Father Murray suffered on account of his vocation would be most puzzling especially to Irish readers. The hardness of the opposition was due: almost exclusively to the spectre of cc a spoiled priest n in the family. Our priest novelist, Canon Sheehan, who died in 1913 wrote one of his short stories on the spoiled priest. Explaining the expression for outsiders he added this note : cc This is the term used in some parts of the country to express the failure of a student who has just put his foot within the precincts of the Sanctuary and been rejected. Up to quite a recent period such an ill-fated youth was regarded by the peasantry with a certain amount of scorn, not unmingled with superstition. Happily, larger ideas are being developed on this subject n. With the advantage of other sources of information I have been able to supply names and dates where necessary and to mark the broad essential lines of chronology.· Fortunately the Maynooth College Calendar for r884-r889 was available and this was a great help to me in a number of ways. Finally this account is offered as an appreciation. As such it necessarily belongs to that type of biography termed engage - it is conditioned by a 23

point of view. But within these limits I have tried to present the profile of Father Patrick Murray with sympathetic impartiality.

I. EARLY YEARS (r86s-r88o)

Et erit tamquam lignum, quod plantatum est secus decursus aquarum, Quod frl).ctum suum dabit in tempore suo ; et folium eius. non defluet. He shall be like a tree planted Beside the watercourses, That yields its fruit in due season And whose leaf withers not.

Patrik Murray was born on November 24, r86s, at Drumdeevin, Termon, near Letterkenny, in the County of Donegal and in the Diocese of Raphoe, Ireland. He was one of seven children, four boys and three girls, born to Patrick Murray and Rose Devanny. All are now dead. Anne, the longest lived of his sisters, predeceased him by two years. A nephew, who retains the traditional family name of Patrick, and a niece· now live in the parental home of Father Murray. Since about the middle of the eighteenth century Termon has been united with Gartan as one parish. The parish has historical importance for at Gartan St. Colurilba - one of the three national patrons of Ireland - was born in the sixth century. The parish of Gartan and Termon, and in fact the whole Diocese of Raphoe are in the Civil County division of Donegal - the most northerly territory under the Dublin ·administration. In turn the Diocese of Raphoe belongs to the ecclesiastical province of Armagh. Father Murray was born in a small neat farmhouse. A young German, Walter Mosbauer, who had Redemptorist friends, visited this farmhouse some twenty years ago. Later while a prisoner of war he described his visit in a letter (September 23, 1941) to a German confrere:. «In the company of a Boys Scouts' leader and a man who was a sculptor at Letterkenny cemetery, I made a call by car on the relations of Most Reverend Father Murray. The journey was not easy as the rains had made the roads unpleasant. Eventually we reached a farmhouse in a thinly populated part of the countryside. I was met at the door by an old lady, Father Murray's unmarried sister, Anne, and his married brother, Charles. Never, even in Ireland, did I receive a better welcome. I felt a most distinguished person. On the lime-washed wall, over on the right, in an old frame, was a photo­ graph of the Superior General as a young priest. In such a cottage as this, lived dear old folk. We drank strong tea and ate home-made bread. We read letters, looked over photographs and told .many a story. And there your are - from such a small dwelling as this comes many a great leader for the Church n. :44.

'Times were h~rd when Father Murray was born into this home. Not the least part of the misery was a cruel system of landlordism under which the people groaned and slaved. Just four years before he was .born, Father Murray's parish suffered wholesale and unprovoked evictions. Homeless people wandered about for whoni nothing remained but the living death of a workhouse or exile. They chose exile to distant Australia taking with them parcels of clay from the cemetery sur:hiunding the spot where St. Columba was born (r). Dr. Samuel Johnson giving his impressions on. Iona, the .centre of St. Coluniba's monastic life, said: « That man is little to be envied, whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon,· or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona (:4) ». The scene of Calumba's birth and Baptism constantly reminded the people of Gartan and. Termon of their Patron's spiritual teaching. . The little parcels of clay enshrined part of Cohimba's message - and with a new depth of meaning. Meditating on the .nobility. of soul over body St. Columba was fond of this train of thought : « The body is from the slime of the earth, at death it begins to crumble to earth, .in the grave it is covered with earth », and he spoke this .stanza:

«Three little sods ho· man can shun; So the old saying used to run. Sod of his birth, and sod of death, So.d that e:q.shrouds him under the earth>> (3).

There was a deepened sense in this meditation for the exiles from Gartan and Termon in the nineteenth century. Precious in their lives had been the little farms and the mountain grazing now taken from theni. But after all, these things were dust of this earth. The treasure which gave them the strength· to endure all trials they took with them. It was their Faith, hard and bright as the purest of diamonds. It was in the tradition of that Faith and in the hars~ness of. those .times that Patrick Mutray was reared. Trinity College, Dublin, had the right of landlord over the .Murray holding. This Elizabethan University came into the possession of tracts of land in a post~Reformation upheaval. A source of greater anxiety to the · Murrays than the landlord was the Collector of rents or the Agent for Trinity College. He was the notorious third Earl of Leitrim. This man still lives

(1) St. Calumba is known to the people by h.is beautiful Irish name, Columcille . (« Pove 'of the Church») . .(2) · Apud ·Boswell in Totw of The Hebrides: . (3) «·Ocus adubairt an rann-sa: Tri £6dain nach sechantar, Mar adeirid a m6r-fhocul : .F6d a gene, £6d a bais, acus f6d a adhnacail ». - Beatha Cholaim ChiUe: Magnus 0 Domhnaill. (16 Century). 25 in the tradition of the people as a downright tyrant. He was of infamous character with violent prejudices. At his hands several suffered terrible injustices, although in some ways he was not the worst of his kind. Other parts of the Leitrim legend are not suited pueris virginlbusque. The Lord travelled about heavily armed, clad in a coat of mail and with a bodyguard provided by the government. Nemesis took a long time but he did die a tragic death in April 187.8 at the age of seventy-three. Patrick Murray was at tlie impressionable age of twelve when this happening took place. At ninety-three he could still relate the tragedy without macabre details but with sidelights not found in printed accounts. The memory of landlordism gave him views on the morality of dealing with tyrants more advanced than those of the standard nineteenth century text books. Such was the pattern of life in Donegal and admittedly. it was no easy task for old Mr. Murray to be the breadwinner for a wife and seven children. He had to win a livelihood on a small holding from which he might be evicted at very short notice. It required almost heroic trust in Providence to allow his eldest son to study for the priesthood. Thirty years earlier Giovanni Battista Sarto was gravely tempted to refuse when his son, the future St. Pope Pius X, said : « I want to be a priest ». Only after much persuasion did he say: 11 If God wills it >>. It was at least as difficult for the farmer struggling in precarious conditions, in the parish of Gartan and Termon, to give his permission.· From childhood Patrick Murray was accustomed to a way of life steeled for self-renunciation. This toughened his moral fibre and hardened :his will to face difficulties. ahead. He was ready at all times to nourish his soul with the hard. fruit of the Cross. And the Cross came to him in a most painful way. The father, the eldest son and, indeed, every member of the home at Termon had good reason to know that 11 life is not made of cream and peaches ». .What was Patrick Murray's 'mother tongue? The question needs to be answered because when he was elected Superior General, and again at the time of his death, press reports described him as 11 a native speaker of Irish ». Father Murray himself said very definitely that he learned Irish. It is not surprising that uncertainty arose about the question of his 111other tongue. Round about his home. Irish was the language universally spoken by the ordinary. peopl~ when he was a boy. In fact it is still a fairly common vernacular there. At the primary school English alone was officially recognized and allowed as a medium of teaching. That was the position in Ireland for almost half a century after Patrick Murray left Currin (Termon) National School. To place the matter beyond all doubt the question was put to Very Reverend John Canon Murray and he answered: 11 In reply to your letter regarding the language spoken in childhood by your late Superior General, Most Reverend Patrick Murray, I know from personal knowledge that the ' . language of his home was English and that his knowledge of Irish was acquired by his own efforts. His mother, who came from another part of Donegal, did not speak Irish, and the language spoken by the mother naturally determines the language of the home. His father was bilingual )), In point of fact Mrs. Murray (nee Devanny) was from Killymastin, Glenswilly. That part of Donegal was in the last century intensely Irish speaking and that language is still much spoken there. But English was known in parts of the district when Mrs. Murray was growing up. Nobody at the present time could settle the question of Father Murray's mother tongue more satisfactorily than Canon Murray. Better than anyone alive to-day he knew the young PatriCk M:urray. He knew him in boyhood. He was at school with him in Currin. Father Murray was more advanced in years and Canon Murray was one of the small boys he taught while he was a monitor. Canon Murray was not merely a relative but a close friend of the Murrays of Drumdeeviri - that is, the family of the late General Emeritus. Information about Patrick Murray's childhood is scant. He had little memory of what happened in his daily life up to about the age of. ten. As soon as he could lisp a few words his mother taught him prayers and « he was made to say them every night and morning )) . When he was strong enough to walk the half mile to Currin, or as it is now called, Termon National School, he was sent there every day. After some years at school, in accordance with the custom of the time, the teacher chose him as a monitor. This means that he helped now and again to teach some of the beginners. The reading of a little book by Father Furniss, C.SS.R. - a pioneer worker in the last century for the better instruction of children - fostered in him the desire to lead a holy life. He received Confirmation first and, at a later date, Holy Communion. There is nothing to indicate that this order of admission to the Sacraments was in any way unusual at the tii:ne. He was chosen as an altar boy and. liked the company of priests because it inspired fervor. Then came the first stirrings of a vocation to the priesthood but he felt that this great privilege could not be his, ({ because r thought my father would not allow me to leave home as I was the eldest son ... )). This brings us to the year r877. In that year the curate, cir assistant priest, in Termon, a Father F.B. Gallagher, was due for a change to another parish. Before leaving he decided to have a bilk with old Mr. Patrick Murray about his eldest boy. He advised Mr. Murray to send the boy to study for the priesthood. He discussed with him the question of the home mission and of the foreign missions. Mr. Murray could not bring himself to agree to either proposal. To educate the boy for the home mission was beyond his slender material resources. Young Patrick learned later that his father turned down the suggestion to go on the foreign missions, « because he was told he would never see me after I left him, and that I would never be sure of my life on the foreign missions )). 27

At first sight it may appear strange that this man feared so greatly the pain of allowing his son to go to a foreign land. After all exile had been part of the pattern of life for the people of that countryside generation after generation. Exile had indeed been forced upon them but it was something which always caused deepest pain. These people were deeply attached to their homes and to their families. Their own St. Columba - pioneer of Ireland's Peregrinantes pro Christo - strongly emphasized the wr.ench he felt at the thought of exile: (( It is like the separation of soul, the leaving of one's brethren and one's native land and the going forth to distant foreign lands to live in exile and perpetual pilgrimage >> (4). While he ruled out the foreign missions, the old man did finally promise Father Gallagher that if his son wanted to be a priest in the diocese, he would put no obstacle in his way. It was a great moment in his life when, after the lapse of some time, Patrick heard the result of this conversation. ((I was overjoyed» he wrote later, (( when I heard it. I was taken in a special manner by the idea of the foreign mission, because I thought I would. belong altogether to God then, and I thought I would be very happy if I could die for Him as a priest on the foreign mission; but of the purity of my motives I'm very doubtful ». All this time he 'was saying a little prayer which he learned from his mother and loved very much : (( Jesus, Mary and J oseph, I give you my heart and my soul; Jesus, Mary and Joseph, assist me in my last agony; Jesus, Mary and J oseph, may I breathe forth my soul in peace to you Infant Jesus meek and mild, look on me a little child, pity mine and pity me, and suffer me to come to Thee. Heart of Jesus, I adore Thee, Heart of Mary, I implore thee, Heart of Joseph pure and just, in these three hearts I put my trust». This was the beginning of an ever growing devotion to the Holy Family. Love of the Mother of God also dates from his tenderest years. May r879, his thirteenth year, was a landmark in its development. The devotions in Termon Church fired him to great enthusiasm. At the end of the month Father John Doherty presented him with a book on Our Lady because he attended more faithfully than the other boys. For years he treasured and read this book. He has this passage about it in his Curriculum Vitae: (( At the end of the month I was delighted when I got a little Month of May, from which the examples were read during the devotions. This little book is very dear to me since then and I always felt great consolation in reading it. I always remember what the curate said in giving the book.: 'I hope you will make good use of it' - and my own desire and resolution at the time to make as good use of it as I could».

(4) « As sgarioh cuirp re hanmuin do ·duine scaradh rena braithrib ocus rena tir duthchais ocus dul uathuibh a tirib ciana comhaighecha ar deoraighect ocus ar oilithre tsuthain ». - ·Beatha Cholaim Chille. . He tells of what he considered a period of tepidity and how . one of those pseudo-prophecies which not infrequently go from mouth to mouth in times of stress, helped to waken him out of it. « I remember what made me determine at last to change my life was an old saying which made a great impression on me, 'that the world would come to an end in r88r'. Even the possibility of this, assisted by rather frightful dreams, made me think very seriously on death· and judgment and hell. I thought if I only made the attempt to become a priest I would die happy, so I determined not to let the first opportunity of becoming a priest, or making the attempt, escape me ». Just then, « a rather providential circumstance n provided the oppor­ tunity he was seeking. In fact this << providential circumstance n links Patrick Murray in an interesting way with a new development in Irish Secondary education. He was to begin his studies for the priesthood in the preparatory Seminary ·at a time when history was in the making. The Intermediate Education (Ireland) Act became law, August r6, r878. To promote intermediate secular education by holding public examinations of students was the main purpose of this Act. It would bring the secondary schools of Ireland into public competition for the first time. The Protestant head masters of schools at once took conceited action to ensure.full advantage from the Act. Many of the older generation of Catholic masters and a few of the Irish bishops thought that it would be rashness for their schools to compete publicly with Protestant schools. Catholic schools were still labouring under severest handicaps. Their ri~als had every advantage: long establishment; good buildings richly endowed; professors well .trained and drawn mainly from Trinity College, Dublin, which had a tradition of classical learning. The Protestant schools were equipped with the latest scientific appliances required for the proper teaching of the positive sciences .. The Catholic schools in general lacked all these advantages. . The main weight of Catholic opinion favoured. an effort to take advan­ tage of the Act despite the undeniable difficulties~ Fortunately their view was justified. When, in September r879, the results of the first year's In­ termediate examinations were published it was found that the Catholic Col­ leges were leading. Actually first place in Ireland fell to a Catholic boy from the Jesuit Sacred Heart College, Limerick. In subsequent years the Catholic schools also maintained their lead. Bishop Michael Logue had just been appointed to rule the see of Raphoe while this battle was being fought out in the rest of Ireland. He was anxious to secure the benefits of Intermediate education for his diocese. In this effort he had the support of Reverend Dr. Edward Maguire, President of the preparatory Diocesan Seminary at Letterkenny. Dr. Maguire was ready to co-operate but he was by no means confident of the success of the venture. Looking back after forty years he wrote : « The prospect· of a respectable muster of students was as gloomy· as the old 29 building itself ». He also referred to it as a << primitive and uninviting academy» (s). As Patrick Murray spent four years of his life in this « primitive and uninviting academy » it will be well to have an outline of its history. Up to r879 it had as headmaster :j. Mr. Francis Gallagher who had been for a time a Mayncioth student and later attended Newman's Catholic University in Dublin. Then, and during Patrick Murray's time as student there, it was called « The High School ». Students attended it during the day and those who, like Patr1ck Murray, came from a distance had to live with families round about. Some time after Pahick Murray left it the name was changed to « The Literary Institute ». The position of headmaster was vacant when Bishop Logue began to rule the Diocese of Raphoe in r879. He decided to constitute the existing premises a temporary Seminary for the Diocese and appointed a priest, Dr. Maguire, in charge of it. The «uninviting academy». has long since disappeared. The building of a new Seminary began in 1904 and the present impressive St. Eunan's College was opened in 1906. Patrick Murray will now tell us how matters of national importance provided him with the opportunity which put him on the way which finally led to the priesthood and to the priesthood in the Redemptorist Congregation. «The President of the Diocesan High School (6) and the Bishop were anxious to have a supply .of scholars at the High School who would be eligible for the Intermediate examinations, and at a Concursus (or Entrance test) ·which · they held offered premiums to candidates who should be eligible... So as I was eligible and qualified for the Concursus, I determined to take this op­ portunity to become a priest. I knew my father would not be pleased, but I was firmly determined at the time either to be a priest at home or a foreign missionary. It was, I think, a disgust and horror of the life I was leading together with the fear of death and hell and a kind of . secret attraction and love I must always have had for a holy life that made me so firm in my determination that I think at the time it would be only physical force that would have prevented me, I would have preferred at that time to be a foreign missionary but I thought I would be safe enough as an ordinary priest and I knew my people would be more pleased at my doing ·so than going away altogether. So after I passed the Concursus I came home and told my people I was going to· the High School next day. My father was not pleased but he told me to do as I wished ... So in December r88o, I went to the High School determined on trying to lead as good a life as I could and on becoming a;s good a priest as I. could ».

(5) Cf. Very Rev.. E. Canon Maguire, A Histo1·y of the Diocese of Raphoe, P. r, Vol. r, p. 199. (6) Iu Ir~land at the present time Seminaries of this type are usually referred to as Colleges. The word College is used to designate an Educational Establishment where studies are done in preparation for a . University course and after that Philosophy and Theology. In subsequent pages for the convenience of readers outside Ireland, I sometimes. refer to the Letterkenny school as the Minor Seminary. · 30

Il. PREPARING FOR MAYNOOTH (r88o-r884)

Deus Deus meus, ad te de luce vigilo.­ Sitivit in te anima mea, quam multipliciter tibi caro mea. In terra deserta, et invia, et inaquosa : Sic in sancto apparui tibi, ut viderem virtutem tuam, et gloriam tuam. 0 God, You are my God whom I seek; for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water. Thus have I gazed towards you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory. ·

Patrick Murray was at the High School from December r88o until August r884. Study, and the restraint necessary to persevere in it from day to day, did not come easy to him. His recollections of the years in Let­ terkenny were not pleasant. He is quite open about things that annoyed him : « I was rather timid and nervous in disposition, which caused some of my companions to amuse themselves at my expense. Our professor too, who was a priest, used often to speak rather contemptuously of me in dass and treat me rather severely. I felt these things rather sharply, and to add to them my father used to complain of me sometimes and threaten to take me home. This lasted more or less all my time there, but towards the end I got a little used to it. Under these circumstances I could not look for much exterior co:p_solation, so I tried to seek consolation in spiritual things ». One of his greatest spiritual consolations during his years at the Let­ terkenny High School was the reading of Dr. Nicholas Callan's translation into English of the ascetical works of St. Alphonsus. In fact he knew St. Alphonsus (or, as he was then more generally known, St. Liguori) through his spiritual writing long before he realized that he was the recognized founder of the Redemptorists. It happened that while he was generally in a rather troubled state the Passionists came to the town of Letterkenny to preach a fortnight's mission to the Holy Family Confraternity. Patrick Murray attended it. This mis­ sion took place during the Spring of I88I and it marks another important development in the history of his vocation. It turned his thoughts in a very definite way, not merely to the priesthood but to the priesthood as a member of one of the missionary religious orders. He has left an account of this mission which was the first one he ever attended : « The mission and missionaries made a lasting impression on my mind ... I thought them extraordinary men ... I considered them much above ordinary priests and I was afraid I was too bad to be even an ordinary priest. However I would have undergone anything at the time could I only have become a missionary. I desired it so much, especially after I had heard that they differed from ordinary priests by their being bound to poverty and obedience in everything >>. This mission certainly did make a lasting impression on him. More than forty years later writing (6 August, 1923), to the confreres of the then Australasian Vice-Province he has this passage on the subject of trying to encourage vocations : (( ... A kind word of encouragement from the mis­ sion er when he meets a promising subject can help. I myself got my first idea of entering the Congregation from a Passionist Father who, after a mission we attended in the town, came to the Seminary and asked us how many of us were going to become missioners ». When his mind turned on the priesthood in religion the next question was, (( What Order suits me? » He knew of and was interested in only two : the Passionists and the Redemptorists. He says : (( I would have preferred the Passionists at the time, partly from their name or title on account of which I thought them specially devoted to the Passion of Our Lord, and partly because I thought them much more austere ... However, I thought the Redemptorist rule would be more suited to my strength and constitution and consequently preferred it . . . I remember trying to find out whether any of them had any special devotion to Our Blessed Lady ... ». Scruples about past confessions troubled him much. He prayed to the Mother of God to be relieved of them. Soon afterwards, in the Spring of . r884, the Redemptorists preached a retreat in Letterkenny. He made a general confession to one of the Fathers and the scruples vanished. This increased his confidence in Mary whom he credited with interceding for his relief. From his spiritual preoccupations we must now turn to the academic part of Patrick Murray's life. Fortunately the information on his studies at the High School is more complete than might be expected - due to the courtesy of the Secretary of the Secondary Branch of the Irish Department of Education. An enquiry sent to this Branch brought in reply a formal document stating: (( This is to certify that Patrick Murray, who attended the Diocesan Seminary, Letterkenny, passed the Junior, Middle and Senior Grade examinations held by the Intermediate Education Board for Ireland in the years r88r, r882 and r883 respectively ». A detailed report lists the subjects presented for examination and his proficiency in each. It will be sufficient to give the gist of the report. For the Junior Grade examination he presented Latin, English, Irish (then officially designated as (( Celtic ») Arithmetic, Euclid, Algebra, and Natural Philosophy. (( Natural Philosophy» meant the positive sciences. In the Mathematical subjects, the positive sciences, and Irish his success was considerably above average standard. He did reasonably well in English, Latin was his weakest subject. The next year for. Middle Grade he added Greek and French to the list and succeeded particularly well in Greek. This confirms Father Murray's statements, made when he was advanced in years, that a.t the end of his time in the High School he wrote Greek more easily than Latin, and also 32 that he could read Greek authors with a certain. amount of pleasure during vacation periods. Sometime in the nineteen forties he remarked that he had · practically forgotten all his Greek and even most of his Irish although in his early years as a Redemptorist he had preached in that language. He just barely passed in French. For Senior Grade he presented Greek, Latin, English, French, Arithmetic and Euclid. There is little change in his proficiency in any of the subjects. As far as educational preparation mattered he was now qualified to go to Maynooth when the College re-opened after the Summer vacation - that would be in August r883. But that year it happened that there was no place for him in Maynooth which would secure the assistance of a burse. It was open to him to go instead to the Irish College in Paris or wait in Letterkenny for another yearbefore going to Maynooth. He waited a year in Letterkenny. Eventually he went to Maynooth in August r884 and, not obliged to do the usual year's rhetoric there, was admitted straightway into the class of First Philosophy. "';

III. MAYNOOTH (r884-r887)

Praying for Vocation

Consors Paterni luminis, Lux ipse lucis, et dies, Noctem canendo rumpimus; Assiste postulantibus. 0 God from God, and Light from Light Who art Thyself the day, Our chants shall break the clouds of night; Be with us while we pray.

About the time when he was due to go to Maynooth Patrick Murtay thinks he (( must have got into some kind of a state of false security )). He began to think that there was no use facing the hard life of a missionary priest when one could save one's soul equally well in an easier state ~f life. This line of argument led him (( to see a brighter side of the secular priest n. He continues : (( My turn came to go to Maynooth, and the attractions of becoming a Maynooth student together with the bright side of the secular priest, which I saw, drowned all my desires of becoming a missionary. So I considered myself very happy on my good fortune of getting to Maynooth in August r884 n. His first impression of Maynooth was very favourable. He says, (( I liked the life there exceedingly n. He resolved during the entrance. retreat to be a good student and to keep the Rule as well as he could. He then explains what, to the best of recollection, was his principal motive in keeping the Rule : (( I think it was to get safely through the course and to escape 33

expulsion and bad reports». He·was happy but the-happin,ess was shortlived. A period of scruples and doubts caused him much. annoyance when he had been .for about two months in Maynooth. The attack was so severe that the very thought of it for a long time afterwards usually depressed and made him despondent. It was only when at a later stage he definitely made up his mind 'to become a Redemptorist that he got rid of the last traces of this attack. The thoughts .suggested to him sometimes that he· sought the priesthood to get a good position and to please his relations. « I had a great horror however >> he says,· (( of going back to the world but I thought that this came from h\unan respect and the consciousness of how I would be despised. in the world ». The worst. phase of this attack seems to have lasted about a month or two but, all in all, it was fairly severe for a whole year. During these periods of scruples, doubts and depression Patrick · continued to say a prayer to Our Lady and the Little Office of the Immaculate Conception. Patrick Murray is first mentioned in the Maynooth College Calendar under date ~884-r885 as a student in the class of First Philosophy for which he ·successfully matriculat~d. He was introduced to Philosophy through a work entitled Logicae seu Philosophiae Rationalis · Elementa, specially prepared for the students of Maynooth by Rev. William J ennings who had been professor of Logic, Metaphysics and Ethics in the College from r852 to r862. This manual was selected by the Trustees of Maynooth College in r863 as the Text-Book for the Logic Class arid was· retained for many years after the death of Professor J ennings." At the time ·when Father Murray was elected General in rgog a nuinber of Irish bishops and priests had memories and stories about this book and its author. The remaining part of the Philosophy course was read with the aid of Vallet's Praelectiones Philosophicae and the explanations of Reverend Dr. Richard Hackett; the immediate successor of Professor J ennings in the chair of Logic, Meta­ physics and Ethics. Patrick Murray, always of a rigidly practical. bent, yiras especially · interested . in Natural Philosophy. Under that name the . physical sciences and electricity. were studied. ·The Professor was Reverend Dr. Francis Lennon, affectionately remembered. by generations of Maynoothmeri. as (( Frank ». This Professor __:__ and the tradition inherited from his predecessor in· the chair - gave Patrick Murray ·his only hobby. He ca~ried with him through life an interest in mechanics, telephones and electrical insbillaticms.: Among the older· members of the Irish province there · were many .stories of his self-constructed tel~phone systems. Since his death conrretes have, in various languages, remarked on his interest in mechanics and iri electrical installations (7). ·

(7) A French confrere wrote : «Par austerite religieuse, i1 ne voyageait pas en tou­ riste. A Paris, i1 n'accepta que la visite du Musee. des Arts et "Metiers, parce qti'il pouvait la perfectionner sa science de la mecanique ». - A German confrere added: ;DaB er sehr praki:isch angelegt war, offenbart~ sich darin, daB er iiberall die Einrichtungen besichtigte, wie Schlosser, elektrische Anlagen, fortschrittliche Dinge, teehnische ».

I I 34

Dr. Lennon was appointed to the chair of Natural Philosophy in r864 and retired only in 1912. He covered, therefore, a period of forty eight years.· All through these years, he lectured on his subjects with infectious enthusiasm and impressed on the students the great debt of the College to his predecessor - Dr. Nicholas Callan. In a very real sense forty years after his death Callan vvas still speaking to Maynooth students through Lennon. We are fortunate that the disciple has left a written appreciation of his master. I quote from it just one passage. «The time (when Callan was appointed professor in 1826) was favourable for original investigation in this special department. Oersted's discovery, of six years before, had startled the world of science by the close relationship which it established between electricity and magnetism. The classical experiments of Ampere had gone further still . . . To men of science it was clear that a vast territory filled with hidden treasure lay open before them; and like hundreds of other enthusiasts in both Europe and America, Dr. Callan . . . had resolved to explore it » (8). He did in fact make important contributions to science. One of them is known as the « Callan Induction Coil». To-day, almost a hundred years after his death there is a strong revival of interest in his work (g). It is not surprising, then, that Patrick Murray was fired by the enthusiasm for science Callan had spread in Maynooth and· which was still strong in the eighties of the last century. More interesting still is the fact that years before the young student from Raphoe diocese came to Maynooth he had been unconsciously aided towards his Redemptorist vocation by Nicholas Callan. It came about in this way. While attending the Minor Seminary at Letterkenny he read the Spiritual Writings of St. Alphonsus. In his Curriculum Vitae he writes: << About this time (1881) I got a great love and veneration for our holy Father (or, as I knew him better at that time, by the name of St. Liguori), especially on account of his great devotion to Our Blessed Lady and on account of the simplicity and familiarity of the style of his books of devotion, I used to feel great consolation in reading his books and especially his Glories of Mary ». In boyhood Patrick Murray was reading St. Alphonsus in translations· made by Dr. Callan. From about the middle of the last century these Callan translations of St. Alphonsus were widely spread · in Ireland. Cardinal Logue, who had been Patrick Murray's bishop, when he went to the Minor Seminary, often said that he knew St. Alphonsus first through the Callan editions and remained faithful to them all his life. A short time before his death, the Cardinal recalled the days when St. Alphonsus, in the English of Callan, first worked strong influence on him. «The Ascetic works of St. Alphonsus », he wrote in 1924 to a Redemptorist, « have done wonders in

{8) Cf. Memoir of Dr. Callan apud Healy, Centenary History of Maynooth, p. 575 ff. {9) Cf. Dr. Otto Mahr. in Die Entstehung der Dynamomaschine, Berlin, 1941. 35

conveying solid instruction, nourishing piety, and exciting fervour among people in every state and stage of life . . . Hence it was not without regret ·I noticed that these Spiritual Works were not so common among the people as they were in my early days n. Dr. Lennon has also touched on this part of his i.naster's work (ro). Remarking that Callan studied for the doctorate of Theology at the Sapienza in Rome, before returning as professor in r826 to Maynooth, he continues: « In Rome he had become familiar with the writings of St. Alphonsus, and, knowing the dearth of cheap, ascetical books in Ireland at the time, he saw the immense spiritual benefit his countrymen would derive frotn having such works brought within their reach ... We find about twenty different treatises of St. Alphonsus, large and small, translated by 'a Catholic Clergyman', the usual signature during Dr. Callan's life-time; and, to enable the publisher to lower the price for the benefit of the poor, the only remuneration he could be induced to accept was a small number of copies of each treatise for gratuitous circulation n. In two ways deep and lasting was the influence of Nicholas Callan on the future Redemptorist General. Through Callan he first came to know the ascetical works of St. Alphonsus. Never did a . spiritu~i son of the Saint persevere more tenaciously in reading these works. Indeed it is likely that, a few other Spiritual Classics apart - he read almost exclusively from them. Despite his rigidly supernatural outlook, or rather perhaps because of it, Father Murray had his hobby. He could not remain forever « nailed to his working desk >> (II). Father Murray c~ndidly admitted that it was a relief at times to recapture the atmosphere of the Natural Philosophy class at Maynooth. He turned to mechanics with at least a ray of the enthusiasm of Nicholas Callan. After the mid-summer vacation Patrick Murray began his second scholar year in Maynooth (r88s-r886) as a student in the class of Second Philosophy. « At the beginning of the year », he says, << I resolved to try to despise all scruples even though I should become a little lax». With the help of prayer he did overcome scruples. « Sometimes » he adds, « the remembrance of the preceding year used to depress me, but it was not very serious ». This brings us to Patrick Murray's third year in Maynooth (r886-r887) and his entry into the Class of First Theology. He was taught Theology by Dr. Waiter MacDonald - a professor still remembered by older Maynoothmen. « His Reminiscences of a Maynooth ProjessOT, posthumously published, made his name known in reading circles seldom troubled by theologians; but he was a theologian of eminence, and somewhat of a stormy petrel n (I2). He had also as professors for Theology Thomas O'Dea (later

(IO} loco cit. (n) Clavado en su mesa de .tmbajo - P. Raymundo Telleda's phrase ·to describe Father· Murray. Cf. San Aljonso ... , T. II p. 966. (r2) Meehan, Window on Maynooth, p. ·83. Bishop of Galway) and Daniel Coghlan (later Bishop of Cork).· The fourth professor for Theology was Reverend Richard Owens. For Sacred Scripture he had Professor Charles Macaulay. His professor for Church History was Father Thomas Gilmartin. A priest of exceptional brillance, Gilmartin died in r892 at the age of thirty five, before the second volume of his Manual of Church History was completed. During this third year in the College, Patrick Murray began by degrees to lead a regular and normal spiritual life. Some months before the Summer vacation while studying the Penance tract in Gury's Compendium Theologiae Moralis (r3) he got «very much afraid of the responsibility and dangers of a Confessor n. Fear of responsibility in one shape or another was in fact so strong in him during these early .Years that it formed a basic natural help in turning his thoughts towards the religious life. In the Spring of .r88r he attended a parish mission for the first time. He was then a student at the Minor Seminary and the mission was preached by the Passionists in the town of Letterkenny. It started in hrm the desire to be a religious. Read in the light of history these words, written in r888 about his feelings after the Letterkenny mission, have surely fine irony. cc I would have undergone anything at the time could I have become a missionary. I desired it so much, especially after I had heard that they differed from ordinary priests by their being bound to poverty and obedience in everything. I liked the obedience in a special manner, because I never liked responsibility of any kind; moreover I dreaded the responsibility of a secular priest because I heard that he was responsible for everyone under his care n. In June of this third year in the College he was due for Tonsure and Minor Orders. This brought up his past troubles in a new form. He goes on to describe what happened : cc These (past) fears used to depress me occasionally in studying some parts of the Penance Tract and at the end of the year made me a little scrupulous about taking Orders n. In point of fact Maynooth records show that he received Tonsure and Minor Orders at the normal time. He was tonsured June rs, r887, and got Minor Orders on the following day - all at the hands of His Grace, Most Reverend William W alsh, Archbishop of Dublin. Dr. Walsh had been the President of Maynooth when Patrick Murray went there in r884 but the following year he was appointed to the See of Dublin. He was a brilliant man but .one who in his public statements and actions consciously adopted a much different approach to that of the future General of the Redemptorists. The phrase of Tacitus has been applied to him by an admirer, cc he had the showman's knack of attracting attention to anything he would say or do n (14). Dr. Walsh professed Theology in

(13) This was his manual for Moral Theology. For Dogmatic Theology he had .Perrone's Praelectiones Theologicae. · · (14) Cf. Walsh, William f. Walsh, Archbishop of Dublin, p. 25. 37

· Maynooth hut he never taught Patrick Murray. In r88o he published a . monograph entitled Tractatus de Actibus Humanis. As President of Maynooth he was succeeded by Dr. Robert Browne, who retained the office until r894 when he was appointed Bishop of Cloyne. The new President was a man to win the attention of the student from Raphoe. Dr. Browne was severely practical. At this time he was especially interested in the beauty of God's house for Maynooth sorely needed beauty. Those who first planned it had scant interest in its architecture. Some hard facts about the College history explain the disregard for principles of aesthetic taste during the first four decades of its existence. Founded in 1795, under an act of the subordinate and unrepresentative Irish Parliament, Maynooth was regarded .as the child of His Majesty's Government. It was financed by an annual grant from Parliament ____:_ the British Parliament after the Act of Union in r8oo - and was governed by a body of seventeen Trustees responsible to Parliament. The policy of His Majesty's Government was exclusively concerned with a means for clerical education in Ireland that would mould a type of Irish priest less dangerous to the Crown than the product of Continental Seminaries. It was an interest with lack of enthusiasm for the general welfare of the College. As a member for Edinburgh Lord Macaulay spoke in Parliament in support of the Increased Grant for Maynooth in r845. In the course of a remarkable speech he said: « When I remember what we have taken from the Roman Catholic . Church - King's College, New College, my own Trinity College and Christ Church - and when I look at the miserable Do-the-boys Hall we have given them in return - I ask myself if we and the Protestant religion are not disgraced by the comparison ». That is the Hansard text and the words he actually did speak. Later - frightened no doubt by its baldness - he recognised only a milder form of the last sentence: << I feel, I must own, less proud than I could wish of being a Protestant and a Cambridge man ». But, chiefly on account of favouring a better grant for Maynooth, at the General Election of r847 he was rejected. Real freedom to plan for the improvement of Maynooth buildings came with the Disestablishment Act of r869 - the Act through which the (Protestant) Church of Ireland ceased to be the official state religion. From this time onwards the College has been governed exclusively by the Irish Hierarchy. When Patrick Murray came to Maynooth the greatest achievement in this new era of the College history was being pushed forward with strikfng energy by Reverend President Robert Browne. Despite worries about vocation and studies all that he saw of the President's planning fascinated him. Even in old age he still .remembered with pleasure the work on the Maynooth College Chapel in the late eighties. The Chapel was bound to remain pictured in his memory. In every way, it was then, and still remains the noblest of Maynooth buildings. Pugin had submitted a plan for a Chapel worthy of Ireland's. principal Seminary but as far back as r845 it had to be relinquished. Eventually the building of the Chapel was begun in r874. Work on it had lasted for almost thirty years when in 1902 the Tower was completed. The Architect was McCarthy, a pupil of Pugin. For style he adopted a late type of gothic with Pugin's austerity considerably modified. The interior of Maynooth Chapel has the « dim religious light » but · there is an air of devotional warmth about it. Patrick Murray found that moments spent there during periods of spiritual crisis could quicken the action of his soul by a power -superior to itself. There he could fall back for consolation first on his own private prayers and afterwards on the psalms in the Little Office of Our Blessed Lady or that of the Immaculate Conception .. Some when reciting the psalms in the Breviary like to think of them as the echoes of the prayer which rang through the Cenacle on the evening of Maundy Thursday. But Most Reverend Patrick Murray, octogenarian General Emeritus, could confess during his first years of retirement in Limerick that at times when he read one or other_ of them he halted, and his mind went back over the years to recapture some of the spiritual strength that came to him during difficult days in the College at Maynooth. The strength of youth, in heart and soul, renewed as the eagle's. His third year in Maynooth, and first year in the Theology Class, had a bright side for Patrick Murray. It led to appreciation of St. Alphonsus from a new point of view - esteem for him as a theologian. It was borne in on him that ·the reason why the Saint was « so simple and so sound and accurate in all his Theology was on account of his great devotion to Our Blessed Lady... ». At the beginning of May that year (r887) the Spiritual Director exhorted the students to a notable increase of devotion to Mary during her own month. Patrick Murray says that he tried to put this advice into practice << and went out on vacation with confidence in Mary's protection»' During the vacation there was a Redemptorist mission in what he calls . cc a neighbouring parish». In point of fact the mission was given in Clondahorkey (Dunfanaghy) Co. Donegal, July 3-24, r887. It was prea­ ched by Fathers Geoghegan, Lambert and Somers. Patrick Murray stayed with relatives and attended the exercises for the last few days of the· mis­ sion; Once again his thoughts were riveted on the missionary life. A desire for this life became very strong when one of the Fathers preached on Our Lady of Perpetual Succour. He has an interesting incidental remark on the sermon : cc I merely heard this title (of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour) mentioned before this, and up to this time felt rather a repugnance than an attraction for it, and I think the picture ». It seems, then, that this mission may be regarded as the beginning of Father Murray's life-long devotion to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour. 39

IV. NEARER DRAWS THE DAY

Final struggle for V a cation (July r887 - November r888)

Ecce, jam noctis tenuatur umbra, Lux et aurorae rutilans coruscat : Supplices rerum Dominum canora Voce precemur. Paler have grown the shades of night, And nearer draws the day Checkering the sky with streaks of light Since we began to pray.

The mission of July r887 is an outstanding event in the history of Patrick Murray's vocation. After it he was determined to make every sacrifice to become a Redemptorist. Here are his impressions : « I got an extraordinary desire to be a Redemptorist, and resolved if possible to become one. The first thing, I think, I felt was a great love for and confidence in Our Lady of Perpetual Succour and St. Alphonsus... I then remembered my old longing to join some Order devoted in a special way to Our Blessed Lady, and it revived stronger than ever. I remembered too my past scruples and the fear and hatred they gave me of the life of a secular priest, and I thought if I were under the special protection of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour and of St. Alphonsus that I would be afraid of nothing ... I was in this state of mind when I heard one of the Fathers say that their holy founder, St. Alphonsus (I then, for the first time, adverted to St. Alphonsus being the founder of the Redemptorists, or at least paid any attention to it) had placed the Congregation under the special protection of Our Blessed Lady and obliged them to profess a very tender devotion to her and to preach her in all their missions. 'Twas this thought of the Redemptorists being specially devoted to Our Blessed Lady and placed under her special protection, and their being founded by St. Alphonsus, together with the charm which the missionary life had for me· that in a special way gave me so great a desire to become one n. But how many difficulties stood between desire and fulfilment ! In the teeth of such obstacles could he really find the way to be a Redemptorist? Just then, he heard that Father Lambert had .been a secular priest for a number of years before he joined the Redemptorists. This pointed a possi­ ble solution to his difficulty. Why not finish his course in Maynooth and then work for some years in his own diocese? Afterwards he could choose an opportune moment to face his father w~th the proposal to go to the Redemptorists. We can afford only a brief notice on Father W alter Lambert who played an important part in the last stages of Patrick Murray's struggle for vocation. At the time of the mission in r887 he was sixty-nine years old but had in his own mind even passed the seventy mark. Claiming that he was born during the months immediately following the battle of Waterloo, with a quaint sense of humour he used to say : << Napoleon and myself were struggling for· existence at the same time n. He was mistaken. Accurate in­ formation on the date of his hirth shows that he was born not in r8rs but three years later. The story of Father W alter Lambert was bound to appeal to Patrick Murray. For twenty-eight years this priest who was a County Wexford man ministered as a curate in his .own Diocese of Ferns. A parish was offered him· but he deClined responsibility, at such a level, for souls. His spiritual ambition was for the foreign missions. But difficulties stood in the way. A talk with a Redemptorist at Bishop Eton, Liverpool, brought him to our Congregation. However, he did not forget the foreign missions. His library, which was a good one, was given in aid of them .. During the mission Patrick Murray had a brief conversation with Father Lambert in the sacristy of the Church. «I hope n Father Lambert said to him, « you will not die 'till you become a missionary n •. Father Lambert himself lived to see the young Redemptorist, Patrick Murray, on. the mission field. During the year 1902 the old man of iron constitution 'vas himself still an active and good missioner. A heavy chill caused his death at eightly-three in the following January. The mission and the talk with Father Lambert put. strength of endurance into Patrkk Murray's desire for the Redemptorist way of life. At this time also he got confirmation of his resolution from the reading of a little boo~ on Our Lady of Perpetual Succour which Father Livius, C.SS.R., had translated· into English. His plan was to enter the Redemptorists some time after Ordination to priesthood. . · But once again disturbing thoughts upset his. peace of mind. Delay had its dangers. While .at the Seminary in Letterkenny he felt a strong desire to be a missioner. But with: the passage of time this desire cooled off. The same-thing could happen now. There was much to be gained by becoming a Redemptorist right away. « However>> he says, «the thought of going at one~ appeared to me impossible ·and I had to rest in the hope of my desire remaining strong )) . In a .talk to the students before they left Maynooth for the Summer vacation of r887 the Spiritual Director (rs) recommended saying the Little Office of the B1essed Virgin Mary while they were away from the College. After the mission Patrick Murray got the Little Office and said it up to the time he went to the Novitiate. This office was said for the grace to per­ severe in his vocation and for the opportunity to become a ·Redemptorist

(rs) In the Curriculum Vitae there are a .few references to the Spiritual Director.. «Spiritual Father., is the usual term. The office of Spiritual Father, as a permanent part of Maynooi:h life, was new in Patrick Murray's time. It was established by. the trustees of M:aynooth, September 7, r886. At the time referred to there were two Vincentians filling this role, Rev. John Myers and Rev. Patrick Boyle. For information on this appointment and also a scheme of studies proposed for Maynooth by Propaganda in r88s, cf. Healy, Centenary History of Maynooth, pp. 531, 532, 706. 41 as soon as possible. However, the thought kept recurring that the idea of entering the Congregation at once was a temptation. He prayed fervently to do God's Will whatever its shape might be. After the Summer vacation he returned to Maynooth to begin his second year of Theology (1887-8) and his fourth year in the College. For about two months at the beginning of this scholar year he struggled against the thought of going at once to the Redemptorists as a temptation. Then some of his fellow students left to join the Vincentians and this renewed the idea that he should follow his vocation without delay. Again he dismissed the thought as one born of vainglory ot:, as he himself puts it, a desire « to make myself as good as others ». Some time later another student whom (owing to circumstances of College life at the period) he could not help knowing much better than most others also left to become a Vincentian. As usual he gives no name but fortunately the identity of the student is beyond doubt. He was Michael O'Farrell, later (1920-1928) Bishop of Bathurst, Australia. An Irish Redemptorist, who spent the greater part of his life on the Australian Mission, knew Bishop O'Farrell well. He writes : « Bishop O'Farrel was a contemporary of Father Murray's in Maynooth and had great respects for him. Everytilhe we met he asked to have his best wishes sent to his old friend. Father O'Farrell, C.M., was the Spiritual Director of the students at Manly College and Vice-Rector of Sydney University's Catholic College before he was elected Bishop. In conver­ sation he constantly told little stories about his time in Maynooth with Father Murray. I forget most of them now but this one comes to my mind. At that early period, in the part of the College known as St. Joseph's Division, it sometimes happened that two students shared a room. Michael O'Farrell was in the same room with Patrick Murray. Central heating was then unheard of in Maynooth and with the damp Irish climate the rooms in winter were harshly cold. Patrick occasionally shaved before retiring to bed at night. His companion in the room once said to him : 'Why do that, is it not better to shave in the morning?' The reply came quickly: 'You miss the point Michael, that shave is just a bit of exerCise to warm myself up in this place!' ». Bishop O'Farrell's memory of Patrick Murray as a Maynooth student was that of << a very jovial companion and a conscientious worker >>. Another contemporary and classmate of the late General Emeritus in Maynooth was Monsignor Thomas Cummins, P.P., S.T.D., Roscommon, Ireland (d. 1943). During their student days Thomas Cummins was always on joking terms with Patrick Murray. He noticed, however, that there were times when he seemed to get into unusually serious moods - no doubt owing to the struggle about his vocation. Speaking to the Redemptorist Community at St. Patrick's, Esker, Athenry, during the bi-centenary celebrations of the Congregation in 1932, Monsignor Cummins said: «When I found your future Superior General with a serious look on his face it was my custom to give him a clap on the shoulder and say 'Paddy, how's your conscience this 42 morning?' )), er But)) continued the Monsignor, << had I kept my conscience as well as my friend Paddy Murray kept his, I might be the Master General of an Order today n. During the year r887, and indeed ever since he entered Maynooth, Father Murray had interesting contacts with a student destined to play a most important pioneering part in the movement to revive Irish as a spoken language. It was mental refreshment for him in later years to discuss at length Eugene O'Growney's dedication to ideals. O'Growney was two years older than Father Murray and also two classes ahead of him in Maynooth. Personal association of the two students lasted about three and a half years. Father O'Growney left the College in the earlier part of r888 to act as assistant to the Dean in the Minor Seminary of his own diocese of Meath; when he returned in June r889 to receive Major Orders Father Murray was in the Redemptorist Novitiate at Bishop Eton, Liverpool. After a year in the pastoral ministry O'Growney was called to fill the chair of Irish Language and Literature in Maynooth. Soon after this ap­ pointment in r8go he was in correspondence with a Redemptorist student at Teignmouth on matters concerning Irish. One of his letters shows he had not forgotten Patrick Murray's work for the language. It has this incidental remark: << Patrick Murray, the greatest playboy we had in Maynooth (r6), is with you now and will help you to learn Irish)). It had been easy for Father Murray to work with O'Growney because their viewpoints on the language revival were essentially the same. Both were chiefly motivated by Apostolic considerations. O'Growney's enthusiasm for Irish was untainted with chauvinism. A restored language, he insisted, would be a poor boon if it did not mean an added help to maintain vigorous faith in the daily lives of the people. After the year r888 Father Murray never met Eugene O'Growney but he valued his Simple Lessons in Irish and made good use of them for the composition of his sermons. Experts lauded O'Growney's Lessons. <

(r6) .An bithiunach ba mho a bhiodh incar measc Muigh Nuat. 43 congregantur. It is a general, though not a compulsory custom in Maynooth for students of the same diocese to cling together at the periods of formal recreation after dinner and supper. Plausible arguments recommended the usefulness of this tradition. On principle, however, Father Murray opted for closer contact with seminarians of other dioceses. His partnership with O'Growney in the work of promoting a knowledge of Irish in the College made his resolution to act on his belief less a mark of exceptional behaviour. As a means to help the language revival movement in the College O'Growney arranged groups, made up of students drawn from different dioceses, ill- such a way that after supper a fair amount of conversation was carried on in Irish. Patrick Murray readily took his place in one of these groups. The initiative proved by this action is greater than appears at first sight. At the period - the eighties of the last century - the proposal to preserve and to spread the use of Irish as a vernacular was as yet an almost unpreached ideal. The first serious effort to organize a movement, on a national scale, with this professed aim dates from r893 when the Gaelic League was founded. The contemporary attitude towards Irish in Maynooth can be gauged from a letter written in r8g6 by O'Growney himself. Owing to increased physical weakness he. had been compelled to resign the chair of Irish in the College. Here is a sentence taken from a letter giving points of information to his successor:. «The students have not much. time to study modern languages, but you will have up to twenty studying Irish every yearn. It can be safely assumed that more than a decade earlier, when O'Growney and .Patrick Murray were students, the number of enthusiasts was less. At that time the teacher of Irish in the College, somewhat haphazardly appointed from year to year, had not the status of a professor. In r886 O'Growney formed in Maynooth, with membership drawn from the student body, an Irish Society (17). The bulk of the members had Irish as their mother tongue and it was the only language permitted at meetings. The points discussed were partly subjects relating to class work but oc­ casionally there was a lighter programme consisting · of Irish music. Was Patrick Murray a member of this Society? Investigations have failed to secure an answer to the question. No records of the Society for the years r886-r888 appear to. be now available. However, it is not unlikely that Father Murray has been one of the members. Anything which had the support of Dr. Browne he would look on as soundly practical. And we are assured that: cc The Most Rev. Dr. Browne, then President of Maynooth College, looked with favour on the new movement among the students, and encouraged their patriotism by giving them every facility for coming together n (r8).

(r7) This venture was not a permanent success· but it inspired the later League of St. Columba in the College. (r8) Memorials of O'Growney, Dublin, rgo4, p. ro2. 44

By 1894 O'Growney's health had hopelessly worsened; A few years in Arizona failed to stay the progress of his complicated illness. Father Murray was Prefect of Students in Teignmouth ·when news came that his companion worker of Maynooth days had passed to his reward. Father O'Growney at the age of thirty six died in the Mercy Hospital, Los Angeles, October r8, r8gg. His last edifying words were branded into Father Murray's mind: cc I am so indescribably happy that I cannot express it ». We must turn from Patrick Murray's contacts with contemporaries in Maynooth to the ever recurring preoccupation with his vocation. He felt . that he should speak about it to his confessor in Maynooth but found it far from easy to bring himself to open his mind on the question. He continued his usual prayers for light in his difficulties and also still said the Little Office of the Immaculate Conception. Together with these devotions he made a Novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour and St. Alphonsus. When he finally made up his mind to speak to his Confessor he at the same time determined to abide by his decision. His Confessor's view was that he had a vocation. He asked Patrick himself to decide on this question : would he follow the vocation at once or consider it for another while? He opted for further consideration. After a month he decided on immediate action and the Confessor was in full agreement. Up to this time the Confessor did not know about the obstacles Patrick Murray feared on the part of his father and relatives. This was now put before him as, in fact, the principal difficulty that stood in the way. The Confessor undertook to write to the Provincial, Very Reverend Hugh Macdonald (afterwards Bishop of Aberdeen). Besides governing the Redemptorist foundations in England and Ireland, Father Macdonald was a very active missioner both in the English language and in his native Scottish Gaelic. He was away from home and the reply, with his authority, was sent by Father Thomas E. Bridgett, who was one of his Consultors. The letter assured Patrick Murray that he had a vocation and that it was better to answer the call without delay. This, for the time being, put his mind at rest. He says: cc I was quite happy and pea<;eful as soon as I got so far. Fortunately for me, I had a rather extraordinary opinion of Redemptorists and thought they were infallible in everything. So I had no difficulty in making up my mind to abide by the decision of my vocation and of the time of following it. I asked Father Master what I was to do, and then applied to Father Provincial, met him at Dundalk (rg), was received by him and appointed the end of August as the time for ·entering the Novitiate». Patrick Murray now returned to his home at Termon for the mid­ Summer vacation of r888-r88g. He had not yet told his parents about the decision to become a Redemptorist. To face his father with this news

(19) Father Bridgett, in reply to the. Confessor, had already suggested entering the Novitiate. At this point Patrick Murray is likely concerned to get through Father Master an arrangement for a dated appointment with the Provincial. 45 required courage. Speaking of the natural disposition of his near relations he says that they were « of a rather fiery temperament>>. They had (as is clear when we piece together statements inserted almost by chance in the Curriculum Vitae) that type of impulsive temperament which is easily roused to indignation by a real or imaginary wrong but also readily bends in humble repentance when a mistake is realized. Old Mr. Murray had evidently more than an ordinary share of this quality. · Father John Stevens, the Novke Master, sent Patrick Murray a copy of the treatise by St. Alphonsus on The Religious State. This seemed to buoy up his courage for the ordeal of breaking to his parents the news of his decision. He says: «I was prepared, I thought, for anything However, I had great difficulty in telling them, but Our Lady of Perpetual Succour and St. Alphonsus brought me through it and through all the troubles and difficulties I had to endure after telling them. I used also to have great consolation and used to feel very much strengthened by Holy Communion and Holy Mass and Visits to the Most Blessed Sacrament >l. He failed- to secure the consent of his parents to go to the Novitiate. cc I thought it » he continues, cc quite impossible to go under these circumstances and even though I could go I was doubtful whether I could recover my peace of mind in the Novitiate ». He consulted the Curate in his home parish, Father Patrick Dunleavy, on his difficulty. Father Dunleavy said: cc If I were in your state I would put it off and trust that God would see to my difficulties >>. To add to his agony his father got the idea that the notion he had taken to leave Maynooth would cause the neighbours to point the finger of scorn at the Murray family. Patrick, their eldest son, would be regarded as « a spoiled priest », a student for the priesthood rejected at Maynooth. .Admittedly old Mr. Murray in those far off days knew little or nothing about Redemptorists. cc Why» argued the old man, cc did Patrick ·get it into his head to leave Maynooth for the sake of going to some place in England that was never heard of until now? Everybody around here knows that Maynooth is a place for training priests. But - Bishop Eton - well, nobody knows anything about that place». The project just didn't make sense. Was it in reality a smokescreen to cover up some trouble his son got into at Maynooth? This last idea got a firm grip on his mind. The Bishop of Raphoe, Patrick O'Donnell, (later Cardinal Archbishop of Armagh), did his part to break this idea in old Mr. Murray's' mind. He went to the home of the Murrays at Termon and with great patience explained to the old man that the dignity of a Redemptorist priest was, in point of fact, higher than that of the priest who came out of Ma:ynooth. Old Mr. Murray was satisfied that he was making an unanswerable refutation of the bishop's argument when, striking the ground with his stick for emphasis, he said to· his Lordship: cc If these Redemptorists. are all that you say they are, know did it happen that you never thought of joining them yourself, My Lord? » The bishop enjoyed the thrust and many times repeated the story at clerical gatherings. In the hope of definitely breaking in old Mr. Murray's mind the idea that his son was under some kind of shadow when he decided to leave Maynooth, the President of the College, Dr. Robert Browne, suggested to Patrick to come back and begin, at least nominally, the next scholar year. This explains why the name of Patrick Murray, Raphoe, appears as a member of the class of Third Theology (r888-r889) in the Maynooth College Calendar. On this last journey of the student Patrick Murray from his home in Termon, Donegal, to St. Patrick's, Maynooth, he called at the Redemptorist Monastery, St. Joseph's, Dundalk, and there had a talk with some of the Fathers. He broke his journey again in Dublin and went to the Redemptorist­ ine Convent of St. Alphonsus. There he had a conversation with the Novice Mistress, Sister M. Gertrude, and asked her for prayers to overco:t;ne his difficulties in the struggle for his vocation. She was very helpful and moreover advised him to answer the call to enter the Redemptorist Congregation as soon as possible. Her counsel settled much of Patrick Murray's difficulties(::w). After these interviews the student who had gone through those «troubles of mind that can burn the heart to cinders» returned to Maynooth for the beginning of his fifth year there. He had got great help from Sister Gertrude but still he says, « my mind was too much troubled to decide on anything ». He made the Entrance Retreat at Maynooth and . during it reviewed once again the whole question of his vocation. He tells the result. « I came to the conclusion that I was altogether incapable of giving any judgment myself in so important a matter . . . so at confession my Confessor told me to leave myself in the hands of Father Provincial and as this was the only safe course, I adopted it. I then tried as well as I could to explain my position to him and determined to abide by his decision. I was overjoyed when he decided that I should go at once ll. During the previous weeks he had been keyed to such a· pitch of tension that he felt feverish at times. Now at last there was comparative relief. The concluding paragraph of his Curriculum Vitae runs: << After informing my friends and relations of my decision, and making myself as indifferent as I could as to how they took it, I came to the Novitiate, feeling consoled by the thought that I gained as much as I lost by the delay. Much di~ I gain in the indifference I now felt to everything except following my vocation. I could congratulate myself on my great happiness in coming to join the Redemptorists- something which I so long and so much desired ».

(20) Sister (later Reverend Mother) M. Gertrude O.SS.R. was born at Richhill, Co. Limerick, February 14, 1836, professed at Bruges, July 30, 1859. She went to Dublin as one of the first members of the Community there. On July 17, 1897, nine Redemptoristines led by Mother M. Gertrude as 'Superior left Dublin to start a new foundation at Clapham. On November 18, 1925, the Community at Clapham left for a new home in a Convent purchased from the Bridgettine nuns at Chudleigh, South Devon. Mother Gertrude died at Chudleigh on May 31, 1931. 47

V. THE NOVITIATE (I888-I88g)

Mio Gesu, Diletto mio, Io non voglio altro che te : Tutto a te mi do, mio Dio; Fanne pur che vuoi di me. - S. ALFONSO. Jesus, Lord, be Thou my own; Thee I long for, Thee alone; All myself I give to Thee; Do whate'er Thou wilt with me.

Brother Patrick Murray was clothed as a Redemptorist novice on the feast of St. Stanisla:us Kostka, November 13, 1888, at Bishop Eton, Liverpool. His novice master was Father John Stevens. Father Stevens was born of pious Anglican parents at Oudely, April 14, 1829 - the very day Catholic Emancipation became law. Educated in France and in Germany he was received into the Church at Munich in his sixteenth year. Returning to England he began studies for the priesthood at St. Edmund's College, Ware. In 1850 he entered the Redemptorist Novitiate. Professed at St. Trond, Belgium, on the feast of the Immaculate Conception 1851 he was ordained priest, together with Thomas E. Bridgett at Liege, August 4, 1856. Father Stevens was a link with the pioneers of the Redemptorist apostolate both in England and in Ireland. He had been the .first and greatest helper of Father John Furniss in establishing the Childrens' Mass. Father Furniss went to Ireland with Father de Buggenoms in 1853 as a member of the first Limerick foundation. From him Father Stevens had gathered a fund of stories about the early missions in Ireland. These stories thrilled the novice Patrick Murray. From novitiate days Brother Murray was interested in the work of the Holy Family Confraternities. This interest he owed in large measure to Father Stevens. Father Stevens was. a great Apostle of men. He gave evidence of his gifts in this direction when from I87r-r874 he had charge of the Holy Family Confraternity in Limerick. Always more of a keen listener than a conversationalist Brother Murray enjoyed the repertoire of stories Father Stevens had about former novices. Few men could tell a story better and most of the stories were told about the youthful exploits of Fathers who later played a prominent part in the mission fields of England, Scotland and Ireland. None of his contemporaries had ~een more Redemptorists in the making. At two different periods he had been novice master for a considerable number of years. Most novice masters develop a personal technique to teach humility. A tour de force of Father Stevens' method helped and also amused Brother Murray. There was an old fashioned hymn with this quaint line, << Oh, silly sheep come near me>>. At recreation time Father Stevens would gather all the novices round him singing this hymn. When they were coming to the operative words he would, after the manner of a maestro, stand up and with expansive gesture invite the « silly sheep n to come nearer him. We are fortunate to have Father Murray's reminiscences of his novice master, more fortunate still to know, by a lucky chance, the views Father Stevens formed about a young man destined to occupy the most responsible office in the Congregation. In many ways the views appear prophetic. It has been mentioned that Brother Murray was clothed November 13, r888. Yet he was professed October 23, r889. His novitiate was twenty days short of twelve months. Father Stevens petitioned the Roman Superiors for a dispensation from those twenty days. The petition led him to dwell at unusual length on Brother Murray's qualities. A rough copy of the petition (which was written in French) is preserved in the provincial archives at Clapham. I am indebted to Father Wilfrid Hughes, the English Provincial, for a photostat and a photographic copy of it. By way of introduction Father Stevens gives a resume of Brother Murray's struggle for his vocation. In this resume the father, and no other member of the Murray family, is mentioned as the cause of the opposition. Father Stevens is evidently relying on oral statements of Brother Murray and his account agrees perfectly with what Father Murray himself repeated more than once even during the last months of his life. He always singled out his father as the source of the opposition. Curiously enough in his Curriculum Vitae he is anything but clear on this same point, In the Curriculum he never mentions his mother as an opponent but he constantly refers to the opposition of « his relatives n. « In the Novitiate n the report of Father Stevens continues, « he has always been a model novice. It would be difficult to find a novice who has morefaithfully, more constantly, co-operated with the graces and inspirations of God. I find that he has all the virtues of a good religious Redemptorist ... The most ardent desire of his soul is to be confonned in everything - and that in the most perfect manner - with the Holy Will of God. (Le plus ardent desir de son ame c'est de se conformer en toutes choses, dans la maniere la plus parfaite, a la sainte volonte de Dieu). It is his aim to avoid the smallest deliberate fault. He has a very gentle and kind disposition and is very much loved by his fellow novices. « The only fault that I have noticed in him is that he is too quiet - too silent at recreation - but that is not due to moroseness for he always keeps himself in the greatest peace of soul. He is naturally shy and of a reserved disposition, but that is nothing serious for he does his best to overcome it and undoubtedly with time it will completely disappear. « The Brother ;has considerable ability and very good judgment. He did a good course in Maynooth and succeeded well. He is a man capable of rendering.much service to the Congregation (c'est un homme capable de rendre beaucoup de service a la Congregation) either as a missionary or in other fields of labour. He may not become a great preacher. There is doubt about thatpart of his ability n. 49

Father Stevens ends with a renewed request for the dispensation as « it is particularly desirable that he should be able to take up his studies once more at the same time as the others in Teignmouth ... ». But before he leaves for Teignmouth let us have another look at the novice in his sur­ roundings at Bishop Eton. Bishop Eton opened a new window of spiritual experience for Brother Murray. He was in the seclusion of the novitiate but the novitiate was attached to a Church and Monastery which were very much the pulse of Catholic Lancashire. There he heard stories about the missions that were being preached all through the North of England. Also there were edifying stories of people who constantly came to honour Mary at her shrine: In later years Bishop Eton sprang as a consoling thought to his memory because of its association with devotion to the Mother of Perpetual Succour. When Brother Murray was a. novice in Bishop Eton the Redemptorist Apostolate there had already a history of forty years. It dated from just a few months after the Restoration of the Hierarchy in September .r8so. Bishop Eton provided spiritual help for the ever increasing number of Irish immigrants after the years of the Great Famine (184s-r847). . By r8s8 the Fathers had ready for worship a beautiful Gothic Church designed by the younger Pugin. In r862 the Monastery bu.ildings were enlarged to provide accommodation ·for the novices, mainly from England · and Ireland, who were trained there during most of the last half of the · nineteenth century. Father Murray recalled that in r8go after he had left for Teignmouth the building of a new extension at Bishop Eton was completed. Bishop Eton became a centre of devotion to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour just a few months after the original picture was restored to public veneration in Rome. A copy of the Roman picture, authenticated by the then Superior General Father Mauron and blessed by Pope Pius IX, arrived there in June r866. Brother Murray found it a great help to fervour while he recited chorally the Divine Office in the Community Chapel. Since r869 Bishop Eton Church has a public shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Succqur. The Imitation represents Christ saying to the Christian: « As much as thou canst go out of thyself so much wilt thou be able to enter into Me ». From boyhood Patrick Murray had striven to forget himself and live for Christ. For a number of years he had been going to Christ through the Mother of Perpetual Succour. And the ascent to Christ which Mary taught him was the ascent of love. To help him and the other novices in this ascent Father Stevens had pin-pointed passages from a letter of St. · Alphonsus. It was a letter written January 28, r762, from Nocera to the novices who were then in the house of Iliceto. « The remedy for temptation » the Saint wrote, << is not to debate .with it but to turn immediately to God saying:. Lord I am entirely Thine, I do not wish to leave You; even if all others desert you I am determined to remain with you. so

Especially have recourse to Holy Mary, who is called the Mother of perseverance. He who invokes and continues to invoke the Madonna never risks losing his vocation... Bind yourselves then in ever greater love to Jesus Christ. Love is that' golden snare which entraps souls for God and holds them fast for Him so that they can never be separated from Him >>. Under such direction Brother Patrick Murray began to be a soul of the type which he would find described later in the very language of Alphonsus, l'anima che si da tutta a Dio - the soul that gi'Ves itself entirely to God (2r).

VI. PRIEST AND MISSIONARY (r8go-r8g8)

Jam lucis orto sidere, Deum precemur supplices, Ut in diurnis actibus Nos servet a nocentibus. Now that the day-star glimmers bright We suppliantly pray, That He, the uncreated Light May guide us on our way.

In the last week of October r88g Reverend Brother Murray arrived at St. Joseph's, Teignmouth, Devon, to continue his studies for the priesthood. A Prefect of students, who personified much of the history of the Congregation welcomed him. That Prefect was Father Timothy Power. Father Power as born in r84r. His call to the Congregation came while he was earning a livelihood in Limerick. He had seen a number of the early standard bearers of the Congregation in Ireland and had heard of all of them. Letters written in boyhood mentioned Father Arnold Van Everdingen from Brabant, Holland. Father Power was fifteen years old when this, the first Redemptorist to die in Ireland, was buried in Limerick. The name of Father John Van Antwerpen, also a Dutchman who took part in the first Redemptorist mission in Ireland (r8sr), was well known to him. He remembered the time when everyone spoke in admiration of Father Vladimir Petcherine. His first journeys to Limerick were made while Father Bernard Hafkenscheid, «the prince of missionaries n, was Superior of the temporary buildings at Mount St. Alphonsus. He was a link with the two men most closely associated with the Limerick foundation, Father Frederick de Held and Father Louis de Buggenoms. Reverend Brother Timothy Power went to Wittem for the study of Moral Theology about a quarter of a century after Father Victor Dechamps'

(2r) Non vi e altro rimedio allora che, senza discorrere colla tentazione, ricorrere subito a Dio, dicendogli: Signore, io mi sono dato a voi, non vi voglio lasciare; se vi lasciano tutU, non vi voglio lasciare io. Specialmente ricorrete a Maria SS.ma, che si chiama la Madre della perseveranza. Chi ricorre e seguita a ricorrere alla Madonna, non e possibile che perda mai la vocazione ... Stringetevi dunque con l'amore sempre piu a Gesu Crista. L'amore e quel laccio d'oro che lega le anime con Dio, e le stringe tanto che par non si possano piu separare da Dio. SI period in that nursery of Redemptorist tradition. And at Wittem he was ordained priest on October 8, r86g. He had harvested many memories of those early days in Wittem. It gave Cardinal Van Rossum much pleasure to listen for a long time to Father Power's Wittem stories when his Eminence came to Limerick in rg28. They were not, of course, contemporaries as students since Father Power, though somewhat of a late vocation, preceded the Cardinal by about a decade. Father Murray, it will be remarked, from his entry into the Congregation had close contact with men reared in the traditions of Clement Mary Hofbauer and his disciple Frederick de Held. He had grown in knowledge of the Redemptorists since the days when he first attended one of their missions in Donegal. Under Father Power's very personal direction Reverend Brother Murray made proximate preparation for the priesthood. Already since his days in the Seminary at Letterkenny the priesthood, in his mind, meant identification, as far as it is humanly possible, with Christ. Father Power added another thought or rather put it in relief. With chronic repetition he insisted that the life of the priest is bound up with the welfare of the Church. Two passages - one from S. Gregory the Great and one from St. John Chrysostom - were singled out as subjects for meditation. St. Gregory said : « The conduct of the pastor should be as far above the conduct of the people as the life of the shepherd is above the life of his flock. He should strive to calculate carefully how strictly he is bound to righteousness when, in comparison with him, his people are called his flock. Consequently, he must be pure in thought, outstanding in activity, discreet in silence, helpful in speech, close to everyone through sympathy, elevated above all others by the practice of contemplation, a companion in humility to those who do good, firm against evildoers through zeal for justice, not lessening his solicitude for internal things by being unduly occupied with those of the outside, and not neglecting attention to external duties by excessive concentration on the interior life » (22). St. John Chrysostom has these points on the priest as a model : « Sub­ ordinates are accustomed to take their superior for their example and model; they form themselves along the lines which they see in him ... As long as an athlete stays at home and engages no opponents, even though he be completely out of condition, yet his weakness is still not known. But just as soon as he prepares for an encounter and descends into the arena, he shows what he is. << In the same way those who stay by themselves and live in retirement can hide their failings behind the veils of solitude. But if they come out into the open, once they leave their life of retirement and seclusion and cast off the cloak which covered them, they necessarily show forth in their outward conduct the most secret recesses of their heart. Then their virtues are a help to the people by arousing the desire of imitation. But at the same

(22) Regulae Pastoralis Libe1·, pars. 2, cap. r; PL 77, 25 D. 52 time their .faults give rise to spiritual sluggishness and indifference and paralyse good thoughts and good works. The beauty of their soul must shine before the eyes of all in order to enlighten and gladden those who behold it... «The priest should be clothed in sparkling armour protecting him on all sides. He should keep guard over his own life with untiring zeal and ceaseless vigilance so that it will be impossible to detect a fault in himn(23). The day when the Bishop said hue accedite came. Most Reverend Dr. William Vaughan, Bishop of Plymouth, ordained him priest September ro, r8go. Unfortunately there was something to mar the joy of that great day but Father Murray welcomed the sorrow as a gift to fill the Chalice of his offering. The opposition of his father had riot yet ceased and it prevented the young priest from receiving the warm congratulations that a host of friends were ready to shower on him. It has been stated more than once - and it was repeated in press accounts at the time of his death - that Father Murray received the Subdiaconate in Maynooth. This is incorrect. Teignmouth records show that he received the Subdiaconate and the Diaconate there successively on the two days previous to priesthood. For these orders the ordaining bishop was also Dr. Vaughan. After Ordination Father Murray had to do one more year as a student . in Teignmouth. At this stage his studies mainly consisted of Moral Theology. For this subject he had as professor Father Aloysius Krebs, an emigre from the Kulturkampf, and by this time a man in the middle sixties. Father Krebs is remembered as a teacher who set great value on the Vindiciae Alphonsianae of Rudolph Smetana. In Maynooth Father Murray had studied Gury but his text book was not Ballerini's edition of the Compendium of that author with its unduly severe criticisms of St. Alphonsus. At any rate Father Krebs was determined that any of his students coming across Bal­ lerini's censures on Alphonsus would at once be confronted with the Audi alteram partem of Father Smetana. The Manual of Father Clement Marc had been published for just six years at the time Father Murray arrived in Teignmouth and it was the ordinary text book for Moral Theology. Other members of the professorial shtff at this period were Fathers John Urbany, Thomas E. Bridgett and Cyril Ryder. Father Urbany, a deep philosopher and an impressive preacher, was from Luxemburg. His presence in Teignmouth was also due to the Kulturkampf. The names of Father Thomas E. Bridgett and of Father Cyril Ryder are too well known to English speaking Redemptorists to need any comment. The ordinary facts of Father Bridgett's career are contained in the Memoir of him published by Father Ryder. The personnel· of the Community at Teignmouth was distinguished and represented many strands of Church history. It reminded the students of the continued persecution of the Church and of the foundation .on which

(23) On the Priesthood, Bk. 3, No. 14; PG ·2, 47 A. 53

N ewman's hopes for a Second Spring were based. Then there were also the representatives of that old English Catholic stock winnowed and purified through the centuries by the gusts of religious bigotry. Typical of this last class was Father John Gibson. Between him and Father Murray there was from the beginning a strong bond of sympathy. Father Gibson was born at Salford in r822 and studied for the priesthood at Ushaw where he was ordained in r849. For a time he was a Professor at Ushaw. He entered the Congregation and was professed at St. Trond October r6, r852. A great part of his fifty years in the Congregation was spent as Bursar in the various Houses of England and Ireland. But he occupied other positions as well and gave many missions and retreats. He had everything in him which appealed to Father Murray. A contemporary who lived close to him for years wrote: « He was indeed conspicuously 'vir simplex et rectus'; simple in his tastes and single-hearted in devotion to duty; upright and truth-loving; amiable, pleasant and cheerful; fond of innocent mirth, to which he contributed greatly in recreation ». Father Gibson treasured one great memory from the time before he became a Redemptorist. It was of a day in July r8sr when he was Deacon at the Requiem Mass for Dr. John Lingard. The funds at the disposal of the Bursar for the support of the staff and the students at Teignmouth were very limited. From day to day it was very much a hand-to-mouth existence and things remained like this through the years. A confnhe who was a student there just before it ceased to be a Redemptorist Monastery writes : « In those days we vvere very poor and our dietary spartan ». On September r, r8gr, Father Murray arrived from Teignmouth in Clapham. But the change to Clapham was only a breathing space and a preparation. It was a preparation for the missionary life in Scotland. Certainly the month he spent there was of great advantage to him. He got a warm welcome from the Rector, Father Edward B. O'Laverty. There he got the first experience of office in the Congregation. He was appointed Assistant to the Bursar (Minister). On one occasion during his period of retirement in Limerick the General Emeritus glanced through the newly published list of house offices. Then he went to the Sub-Minister and congratulated him saying : (( That was also my first office in the Congreg­ ation ». Father O'Laverty, himself a skilled sermon writer, aided Father Murray in the composition of his first homily. The sermon was delivered in the Church of St. Mary's, Clapham, September 12. Father O'Laverty then gave him useful points of information about the mission field in Scotland. He told him plainly that it was a difficult assignment though by no means as severe as it had been some years previously. Father O'Laverty had laboured in the Perth Mission area during those earlier years of the foundation and was speaking from experience. A brief (( build up » on the historical background of the area will indicate the lines his conversation with Father Jl,1urray followed. 54

The opening of St. Mary's, Kinnoull, March rg, r86g, was en event of historical importance. It was the first monastery opened in Scotland since the Reformation. The site was remarkably significant. By the middle of the sixteenth century John Knox had more and more adopted a dour Old Testament type of religion strongly permeated with Calvinism. Followers of the Popish religion were idolators just as truly as the Jews who sacrificed their children to Moloch. Such people deserved extermination. He stood for the clearance of « the dregs of Popery » and the establishment of the full Kirk discipline of Geneva. In pursuit of this policy he preached a series of inflammatory sermons at Perth in 1599. As a result the mob desecrated the parish church and several monasteries. It is difficult to unloose the bridle of religious prejudice. In the last century the spirit of Knox was still strong in Scotland, and particularly so in and around Perth. About forty years ago a Father who was a member of the Community at St. Mary's, Kinnoull, when the Redemptorists began began· work there, jotted down reminiscences which are kept in the Archives of Mount St. Alphonsus, Limerick. In the course of these reminiscences he writes : « When twelve young Redemptorist priests made their Second Novitiate in Perth in r87r, they could see with astonishment the depth and intensity of the popular prejudices against Catholics. A virulent preacher urged his hearers to pull down our new monastery on Kinnoull Hill, crying out : 'Oh for an hour of John Knox'. In that same year of r87r we were stoned at the opening of a little church for poor Irish Catholics at the foot of the Grampians. « What a change now! and the progress of change for the better, though gradual, came more quickly than expected. In that same spot where we were stoned the people received us later on, with honour ». In those early days the Monastery at Perth had for its ordinary field of labour all Scotland and the North of England as far as the Tyne. Father O'Laverty did missionary labour in Scotland at the time when work there was most demanding on patience and energy. He told Father Murray stories of missions in Greenock, in Dumbarton, Gateshead, Dundee, Paisley, Glasgow and of work in several other parts of Scotland. There were also accounts of missions in English cities such as Manchester and Newcastle. Father Murray gave his first mission at St. Mirin's, Paisley, Renfrewshire in r8gr (October 25 - November 8). St. Mirin's is at present the Cathedral Church of the recently formed Diocese of Paisley. When Father Murray gave the mission it was an ordinary parish church of the Archdiocese of Glasgow. Father Murray had as companions Father Engelbert Frohn, Father Aloysius Davenport and Father Thomas Creagh. _ Father Frohn impressed Father Murray with his characteristic German earnestness and perseverance. He was quickly gaining a mastery of the English language and was a powerful mission preacher. Like Father Bernard Lubienski in Poland he set a style in preaching for a number of English and Irish Redemptorists. There is still living in Paisley a very old woman who has vivid memo- 55 ries of the 1891 miSSion. In fact it was the first m1sswn she ever attended as a little girl. A Redemptorist priest visited her during the last mission in Paisley (February 196o) and spoke to her aoout Father Murray's subse­ quent history. She was tremendously impressed. Father Murray gave his first retreat to the Children of Nazareth' House, Aberdeen, March 25 - 29, r892. During his stay in Perth, Father Murray gave in all thirteen missions and nine retreats. On May 29, 1894 Father Murray was transferred from Perth to Lime­ rick. This was his first contact with Catholic life in the South of Ireland and he was impressed. His first view of the meeting of the Holy Family Confraternity recalled the words of St. Alphonsus : « A Confraternity can well be named a Tower of David; a thousand bucklers hang upon it, all the armour of valiant men ». Just the year before he came to Limerick (1893) the Confraternity had celebrated its Silver Jubilee. Fifty years later (1928) when he was made a Freeman of the City, he had this to say about his first impression of Redemptorist work in Limerick: <>. During the early months of r895 Father Murray was changed to Dundalk and gave a number of missions and retreats in that area. While in Dundalk he gave a mission in the Irish language in the Western part of Ireland. This mission lasted for three weeks, from the 4th to the 25th of August, 1895. It was given in the churches of Rosmuck and Letterthore. His companions were Fathers Patrick Sampson and Father John MacNamara. After the mission they sailed to Galway, the nearest big town on the Atlantic coast in a one-masted fishing smack - one of the famous Galway hookers. The next notable event in the life of Father Murray was the Second Novitiate which he did under the direction of Very Reverend Father 0' Laverty at St. Joseph's, Dundalk. It began on September r, 1895, Among the ten Fathers who formed the Second Novitiate was Reverend Patrick J oseph Clune. Father Clune had a distinguished career. Born in County Clare, Ireland, in r864, he worked for a number of years as a secular priest in Australia. He entered the Redemptorist Novitiate in 1893. After a missionary career of unusual distinction in Ireland he returned in r899 to the Southern Cross and took part in the first Redemptorist mission in Western Australia, at the Cathedral, Perth, in October r899. Catholics and non~Catholics alike recognized him as a master of finished oratory. On St. Patrick's Day, I9II, he was consecrated Bishop of Perth by Cardinal Moran. While on a visit to Ireland in 1913 he received news from Rome that the Diocese of Perth was made an Archiepiscopal See and he was created its first Archbishop. During the first World War His Grace served in Egypt and France as Chaplain-General to the Australian Catholic forces. s6

The advice of the Archbishop was always listened to with deep respect and he had courage to use his influence in worthy causes. When the trouble between Ireland and the British Empire had reached a grave stage in 1920 he made public efforts to secure peace., In these public efforts he failed but in other ways he achieved a great amount of success. Particularly in a private audience with Pope Benedict XV, Father Murray acting as . interpreter, there is every reason to believe that he removed a crop of mi­ sunderstandings about the Anglo-Irish problems and prevented an untold amount of harm. But apart from admitting that a conversation took place at a critical moment the Archbishop kept his counsel about the items discussed. Father Murray kept his counsel absolutely. Nobody more than Father Murray rejoiced with Archbishop Clune when he celebrated the completion of his greatest work as a builder for the Glory of God in Western Australia. That occasion was May 4, 1930, when he blessed and opened the completed sanctuary of his new Cathedral, St. Mary's, Perth. Archbishop Clune, died May 24, 1935. The motto on his bishop's crest was '' Spes nostra Salve ». During the Second Novitiate Father Murray with three other priests took part in the renewal of a mission at Whitehaven, in the diocese of Hexham and Newcastle in England. The mission exercises were conducted in the Church of St. Begh and in the cc School~Chapel )) of St. Patrick, during the second fortnight of January. 1896. Seven and a half pages are devoted to a description of this mission in the archives of Dundalk House. The conclusion of the account is as follows : cc The ·parting scene was touching ... It was a working day and a schoolday. But as we left St. Begh's the children rushed out from school to cheer and sing and sob. A crowd of their elders swelled the throng. At the Quay there was a far larger gathering of men, women and children to see us start for Ireiand. There was more cheering and more tears. As we sailed out of harbour the crowd divided into groups and hastened to the different points we would have to pass on our outward journey. They waved farewell to us and sang: 'I am a little Catholic' )). The writer of this account was the Superior of the mission at Whitehaven, Father Francis Hall. Father Hall was an Englishman born near Liverpool in 1836. As a preacher he had splendid descriptive powers. Father Bridgett spoke of his sermons as << intellectual .panoramas n. The largest Churches were packed and many waited outside whenever he was announced as the preacher. And it was not unusual for him to preach for more than two hours! The bulk of his mission work was done in Ireland. He laid the foundations of the admirable system of organization still followed in the Holy Family Confraternity, Limerick. To him also is due the establishment of St. Joseph's, Dundalk, as an enduring and remarkable centre of devotion to St. Gerard Majella. He endeared himself to Father Murray because of his tender devotion to the Sacred Infancy of Our Lord and to St. Alphonsus. Father Patrick Sampson - an Irish fellow student with Father Timothy 57

Power at Wittem - was also with Father Murray on the m1Ss1on at Whitehaven. Just a few years previously Father Sampson had been the Superior of the third mission in which he took part - it was given at St. John's Port, Glasgow, in r8g2, (January 24 -February 7). In after years Father Murray often joked Father Sampson about the early missions on which they laboured together. Father Sampson - by this time in his eighty-fifth year - was still alive when Father Mm·ray came to Ireland in 1928. The old man, completely blind but able to move about, was a member of the community at St. Patrick's, Esker, Athenry. The Superior General sho·wed him every possible mark of respect and before leaving the House of Studies singled him out for a special message of farewell, Much moved by the graciousness of Father Murray the venerable old man kept on repeating: « You were always very 'umble ». On February 4, r8g6, Father Murray sailed direct from Dundalk to Liverpool, the Second Novitiate being ended. He is back again in St. Mary's, Kinnoull, Perth, April 6, r8g6, and this time we have a pen-picture of him from Father John Charlton, a confrere of the English Province. « When in r8g6 >> says Father Charlton, '' the Novitiate was transferred from its old home at Bishop Eton to Perth there were eight choir novices - three of us were English and five had come from Ireland. The curia in Perth was certainly cosmopolitan. The Rector was an Italian, Father Luigi Palliola - persona non grata to the rabid Garibaldians. The Bursar was an Englishman Father Claude Oddie. Our Novice Master, Father Engelbert Frohn, was from the Rhineland, while his assistant was an Englishman, Father Driver. (( The new buildings rather hastily prepared to house the Novices were still in an unfinished state. The windows were draughty. A defective gas stove in the recreation room was the only heating apparatus. But what did that matter? We were young people fitted for Spartan conditions. Spartan indeed they were in the snow swept Highlands in a Monastery built about 400 feet above sea level. There was little to protect us (even when indoors) from the biting winds of winter. « By wise enactment of superiors one member of the community at Kinnoull, Father Patrick Murray, was detailed for the first few weeks to play the host to the little band of newly arrived novices. The Monastery commands a magnificent view of the valley of the Tay and the Grampians, extending to Ben More and almost to the western ocean (24). Father Murray had ample opportunity to take us for long and pleasant walks through glens and over hills. With a kindness that hallmarked his charity he was at infinite pains to see that we had every comfort compatible· with our chilly surroundings. He interested us and enheartened us with the tales and traditions of the missionary life which, if we persevered in the Congregation, was to be our future career.

(24) « There can be no grander introduction to the Highlands of Scotland than to stand on Kinnoull Hill in th'e early morning and read the titles of the Grampians as you follow the flight of the black arrows - Ben-y-Gloe, Beinn Dearg, Cairn Toul, Ben Macdhui - and can that remote monster lurking in the misty distance be Ben Nevis? ». - H.V. Morton, In Search of Scotland, Penguin Ed., p. ns. ss

cc In a broad,. breezy, very real vvay Father Murray made us 'feel at home'. Looking back now over sixty years to those far off days of noviceship in Perth it is borne in on me more than ever before how much we all gained in religious spirit from that brief but preCious period of induction. In Father Patrick Murray we met the ideal host for young religious beginning a new life n (25). In r897 Father Murray is back again in Limerick with a very full programme of Apostolic work in that area. At this time he gave his first retreat to religious Sisters. It was a retreat lasting eight days, beginning on the night of July r6th and ending on the morning of July 26th. He had but short notice of the retreat and could not write the lectures in extenso. He spoke from notes. The retreat was given at the Presentation Convent, Clonmel. Fortunately one Sister who attended the retreat is still living and has a vivid memory of it. Mother Mary Anthony writes : cc It is almost sixty three years since Father Murray gave us our retreat. There were twenty seven of us in the convent at the time and I was then a postulant. In one way or another he stressed charity and obedience in every lecture. What struck us all was the transparent sincerity of the man. In the confessional he seemed to create something of the atmosphere of Heaven. cc The most striking characteristic of Father Murray was his humility. When we came out of retreat I heard Sisters say - and some of them were Sisters who did not lavish praise - 'I am thirty years in the convent and I never heard such a retreat'. cc The final morning we gathered after breakfast to thank Father Murray. Congratulations teemed on him. He said quietly: 'Ih's my first', and a Sister replied immediately: 'There's no need ever to change a word of it' n. Only a short period remained and Father Murray's days as a full time missioner were ended. The man who had a horror of responsibility had to face practically half a century as holder of office in the Congregation.

VII. PREFECT OF STUDENTS

Life in Teignmouth and change to Belfast (r8g8-rgoo)

Esorto ciascuno a far conto della vocazione, ch'e il maggior beneficio che Iddio ha potuto fargli dopo i1 beneficio della creazione e Redenzione. - S. Alfonso. I beg each of you to esteem your vocation, for after Creation and Redemption it is the greatest gift of God to you. - S. Alphonsus.

On January 28, r8g8, Ireland was created an independent Province of the Redemptorist Congregation. But the Irish students still remained in

(25) From Easter 1896 until July gth of that year Father Murray was assisting Dun­ dalk Community, though still attached to Perth. 59

J'eignmouth. Father Murray was appointed Prefect and Professor of Dogmatic Theology. Father John Charlton, who was a student in Teignmouth when the nomi"nations of r8g8 were made, writes : << This office of Prefect, requiring supervision of students from two countries, was naturally a difficult one for Father Murray but he filled it ably and well n. It is not necessary to emphasize that, with Father Murray as Prefect, the spiritual life of the students was kept at a high level. But Father Murray realized that an engine which runs well will do even better with the help of a little oil. He saw to it that the students had sufficient recreation. There were excursions - few indeed in those days - but good and enjoyable. No county in England better than Devon provided opportunities for such excursions. It is especially the land of « kind hearts and warm scenes )) . The place names are suited to the character of its people. They ring softly and bring memories of a county scented with the smell of cider, made pleasant with watered valleys - Challcombe, Yarnscombe, Chudleigh. Here and there names such as Budleigh, Salterton, and Torquay tell of tht beginnings of the call to the seaside celebrated in Cowper's lines: « And all impatient of dry land, agree With one consent to rush into sea)). One excursion was outstanding. The walk to Exeter - about sixteen miles from Teignmouth - was a great event each year. A student could lay no claim to prowess unless he walked there and back. Father Harold Castle, translator and Editor of Pere Berthe's Vie de Saint Alphonse, stood the test despite his frail constitution. Getting to Exeter at the expense of a tough vvalk was really worth while. The Redemptorists had a very great friend there, Canon Hobson, Pastor of the Sacred Heart Church, popularly known as « St. Nicholas Priory n. George Hobson - «Priest Hobson )) Protestants affectionately called him - was a holy and learned ecclesiastic. In Exeter he had won deep respect not merely for his gentleness but also for his charity to the poor of the town irrespective of class or creed. He had travelled much and had read widely. At one time he felt a call to the Redemptorists and only gave up the idea of the religious life when he had tested his vocation beyond doubt. Catholics were respected as people with a cultured background in Exeter. This respect was due in large measure to Canon Hobson and his predecessor Dr. Oliver. As a result of their unobtrusive scholarship it was borne in on the ordinary people of the town that the Cathedral, which is its glory, proclaims the faith of pre-Reformation England. And what a Cathedral it is ! « It is like a problem in mathematics set to music. It is almost too perfect! At one moment it seems that the whole fragment might fly up to heaven or dissolve in cold, formal music )) (26). In Catholic times the title of the twelfth century Cathedral was St.

(26) H.V. MORTON, In Search of Eng!and, Penguin Ed., p. 72. 6o

Mary's and St. Peter's. The Protestants shortened the title to St. Peter's (27). Apart from the admirable chapel of Our Lady, the choir screens, misereres, reredos, and minstrel gallery are things of rare beauty. It has also - but dating from the fifteenth century - notable sculptured figures of Biblical characters. Canon Hobson often spoke to Father Murray about a priest from Ireland who in r876 ministered under his direction at Exeter. The priest was Patrick A. Sheehan from Cloyne, many of whose books, especially My New Curate, later gained an international reputation. In Luke Delmege Canon Sheehan touches on some of his experience in Exeter and, under thinly veiled disguise, the figure of Canon Hobson is introduced. Another excursion, which had less of a cultural appeal than the one to Exeter was made possible through the generosity of a Mr. Trout. Mr. Trout was not a Catholic but he was a very good friend of the Teignmouth com­ munity. His fishing trawler was placed at the disposal of Father Murray and the students whenever they arranged a day's outing. During the last Summer vacation at Teignmouth this excursion almost ended in disaster. On August 22, rgoo, Father Murray and the students planned to go to Berry Head. All went well on the outward journey. The homeward voyage, however, was extremely difficult. The wind dropped and the trawler was becal­ med. Then the students set to work like gallery slaves to oar the boat. After gruelling labour and many hazards they arrived at the Pier in Torquay at midnight. But there was still a journey of ten miles to be covered on foot before they could reach Teignmouth. It so happened that the 22nd of August rgoo was a day of festivity in Torquay. Quite a number of late retiring holiday revellers were still gathered round the Pier when the Redemptorists disembarked from <

(27) At present the services in the Cathedral are conducted on very High Church lines. (28) See Appendix. 6r inspiring and edifying family through his special contact with Father Edmund who over a considerable period was his friend, confessor and spiritual guide. Undoubtedly by his direct spiritual advice Father Edmund gave Father Murray many helps but in a less conscious way - through casual conversation about his own remarkable family - he taught him unyielding trust in Providence in face of all difficulties. Both froni Father Edmund and Bishop William Vaughan he heard the inside story of Father Herbert's struggle to create the first English Missionary Society whose members are now popularly known as the Mill Hill Fathers. It was a story which in after years brought comfort to himself when under his guidance the Redemptorist Congregation developed as a great foreign missionary body. It will be of interest to recall some of the sidelights of the important Mill Hill venture revealed through the conversation of the two uncles of Herbert Vaughan . .The hope of winning souls to God among the teeming millions of pagans was always close to the heart of Herbert Vaughan; (( it lived with him; it was his first love, it was his last n. But back in England after his ordination at Lucca the young priest - by special dispensation he was ordained at twenty two - was appointed Vice President of St. Edmund's College, Ware. Here the dream of his life seemed very remote. Six years passed and then an opportunity unexpectedly came his way. In r86o he was with Cardinal Wiseman in the Isle of Wight. They were driving out and the Cardinal was half asleep. With great fear and dreading a snub Herbert Vaughan put his proposal about founding a foreign missionary society before the Cardinal. At once Nicholas Wiseman became fully awake and took the suggestion very seriously. His mind went back over the years and he told Father Vaughan this story : (( When I was in Rome before my consecration I had great mental troubles, and I we1;1t to a holy priest, since dead, and declared Venerable ... (29). After I had opened my mind and laid bare all its trials to him, he slipped down from his chair to his knees, and after a moment's prayer said: 'Monsignor, you· will never know the perfect rest you seek until you establish a College in England for the Foreign Missions' ... · You are the first person, continued the aged Cardinal to the future Cardinal, who has offered himself to put into effect the plan for the accomplishment of which I have prayed daily ever since. I see that God has heard my prayer, and that the work is from Him >>. Though armed with the approval of his ecclesiastical Superior Herbert Vaughan had still many obstacles to overcome before the scheme for a missionary society was fully worked out. He had to get a missionary college to train priests. A property at Mill Hill, about eleven miles from the centre of London, was brought to his notice. It would be ideal for his purpose. But it was not for sale and when he made efforts to persuade the people in pos­ session to sell it they resented his insistence and gave the servants strict orders never to let him into the house if he called.

(29) He is now St. Vin.cent Pallotti. Herbert Vaughan had chosen St. J oseph as the Patron of his intended Foundation and to him he now turned for help in his difficulty. He felt prompted to have recourse to an unusual pious trick. This is what he did. With a neat parcel containing a statue of St. Joseph under his arm he presented himself at the main door of Holcombe House, Mill Hill. The servant replied that the Master of the house could not see him. Father Herbert replied : « I do not want to see him, only as I have a number of calls to make in this neighbourhood lasting for a period of days, I thought perhaps your would not mind my leaving this parcel here pending my return for it when my visits are finished ». He made this request so persuasively that the servant took the parcel and put it in a cupboard in the hall. The little trick succeeded better than he expected. The determined Founder next hurried from convent to convent asking the nuns to start a Novena for his special intention. <> he said to them, «has a footing in the place I need, pray that he may obtain possession of it ». And he did. On the last day of the Novena, he received a letter from the lessee's agent informing him that his client had changed his mind and was prepared to sell Holcombe House. Thus this building became the nucleus of the first College in England of St. Joseph's Missionary Society. On March r, r866, it was opened with one student and one professor. The professor was Father Herbert Vaughan himself. Not less strong than his nephew's trust in St. Joseph was the Redempt­ orist Father Vaughan's confidence in the intercession of the Mother of Perpetual Succour and he was most careful to foster the same confidence in his spiritual client. Father Murray liked to remember that it was his Director and Confessor who, as Rector of Bishop Eton, secured the first picture of Our Lady under that title for the Liverpool monastery. Apart from more intimate spiritual reasons Father Murray also rev~red Edmund Vaughan as the man who established St. Mary's, Kinnoull, and shaped the beginnings of the Redemptorist Apostolate in Australia. But in the case of these two men it was a matter of mutual admiration. It was Father Edmund Vaughan as Provincial (r894-r8g8) who was responsible for starting Father Murray on the course which kept him in offices of trust in the Congregation for half a century. It was an open secret that Father Murray's appointment as Prefect of Students was based on advice submitted by him before he reliquished the office of Provincial. When Father Murray returned to Teignmouth, Bishop William Vaughan's strength had failed considerably. For seven years previous to that time he had a coadjutor. Canon Charles Graham was consecrated bishop with the right of succession, October 28, r8gr. Bishop Vaughan retired to St. Augustine's Priory, Newton Abbot, Devon, where he died October 24, 1902, in his eighty-ninth year. From about r895 it was more usually Bishop Graham who conferred orders at Teignmouth. This bishop was just a year older than Giuseppe Sarto - the future Pope Pius X - and had the distinction of being ordained with him in the Cathedral of Castelfranco, Veneto, September r8, r8s8. At the time when Father Murray knew Bishop Graham, Giuseppe Sarto was bishop of Mantua. Bishop Graham had interesting stories for Father Murray about Patrick A. Sheehan who in a small way had already begun his career as a writer and had been parish priest of Doneraile since August r8g4. The bishop knew Father Sheehan when he was attached to the Cathedral Church of the Diocese of Plymouth. It was very evident, he said, that Father Sheehan appreciated the guidance of Bishop William Vaughan. He knew he was privileged to learn from a man of wide experience. Apart from the future bishop there was at the Cathedral in those days another man, Canon Herbert W oollett whose magnanimity and depth of piety appealed to Sheehan. But in the general smoothness of life there were ruffles. Bishop V,aughan delighted in a type of piquant humour. Ireland's national demands gave him an op­ portunity to poke fun at the shy sensitive young priest from the sister isle. Charles Graham (then Vicar General of Plymouth) often came to the rescue of Father Sheehan. On one occasion Bishop Vaughan's fun almost caused Patrick Sheehan to lose control of his temper. The press gave prominence to a case arising out of political unrest in Ireland. The bishop sheltered by episcopal dignity began a series of remarks about << Irish atrocities n. Father Sheehan had a withering reply on the tip of his tongue but was too respectful to vocalize it. Canon Graham sized up the situation. He took up the morning paper and began to read from it a particularly bad case of wife-beating on the part of an Englishman. That evened the score and everybody enjoyed the joke.

Change to Belfast (rgoo)

The days of St. Joseph's, Teignmouth, as a Redemptorist House of Studies were drawing to a close. The Irish Province was formed and it was part of the natural evolution that Ireland in a short time would have its own House of Studies. That was the main and sole effective reason prompting the English Provincial, Father John Bennett, to sell the property at Teignmouth. The English Province at the time had not sufficient numbers to provide a community large enough to fill Teignmouth. Independently, however, of the impending withdrawal of the Irish students there was a reason which made Father Bennett little inclined to keep Teignmouth as a permanent House of Studies. Devonshire is a south-eastern county of England where the climate is in parts remarkably mild and relaxing. It is dotted with places visited as health resorts such as Sidmouth, Dartmouth, Torquay and Teignmouth itself. The Redemptorist foundation at Teignmouth from most points of view was ideally situated as a House of Studies. It had sufficient privacy. About half a mile away from the little town (which had then about seven thousand inhabitants) the monastery stood upon the steep slope of a hillside, looking over the sea. Father John Charlton completes the picture. << Internally well designed for its purpose, the building contained all that was needed for the comfort and safe shelter, in soul and body, of the serious group of professors and their alumni who dwelt within it. Only from the point of climate was there one deficiency - and a somewhat grave one. That part of Devon is termed 'sub-tropical' - an ideal spot for retired superannuates but enervating for youthful folk; and the standard of health among the students was never high. There was much illness, some fatalities; and I believe the stamina of many who went through the ordeal was badly impaired. This was the only detriment - and we were a happy family at Teignmouth, men of goodwill, humour and charity». Early in rgoo rumours spread among the students that « something big >> was going to take place in the not too distant future. Then early ordinations were mentioned. Finally it was announced that ordinations to priesthood that year would be July 29. September had been the usual month for ordinations at Teignmouth. Next Father Bennett wrote from Clapham inform­ ing the community that St. Joseph's, Teignmouth, was to be sold. Teignmouth had been a quarter of a century in Redemptorist possession. It was built during the Provincialate of Father Coffin and opened as a House of Studies in r875. It was sold to the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. These Sisters were introduced into England and solidly established there by Father Louis de Buggenoms. To-day the former Redemptorist House of Studies with its fourteen acres of land is advertised as a « High-class Boarding School for Girls. Large pleasure grounds for Tennis, etc. ». The Redemptorists finally bade farewell to Teignmouth on October 13, rgoo. Father Bennett, the Provincial who sold the House of Studies, had been one of the first students educated in it. Bishop Coffin, C.SS.R., was buried in Teignmouth. His body and those of other Redemptorists still rest in the beautiful little cemetery in the garden of St. Joseph's. When Teignmouth passed out of Redemptorist control the English students were sent to Mautern, the House of Studies of the Austrian Province and some also went to Beauplateau in Belgium. Father Charlton comments : « Those Englishmen who went overseas never lost their warm appreciation for Father Murray - nor did they ever lose their abiding affection for him. Oddly enough I believe it was just this link of esteem that led to his election as Father General at the Chapter of rgog in Rome». The significance of this remark of Father Charlton will appear later. An Irish student who kept a diary writes : « The piecemeal exodus of the Irish students is a melancholy memory. The generous send-off celebrations of our English confreres made parting with them all the more sad. Like the fugitives from ancient Troy we hugged the door posts of St. Joseph's, Teignmouth, our happy home. The song « when we're far far away from St. Joseph's » got a meaning we never anticipated. Who said Irishmen and Englishmen cannot live together! At Teignmouth that lie (if anybody ever really believed it) was nailed ». Many spiritual considerations have been built on the story of David a.nd the Philistine. Monsignor Ronald Knox with characteristic resource- 6s fulness added one with a difference. When David had killed the giant with the aid of his sling and a stone from the brook, he had no sword with which to cut off the monster's head; he took for this purpose Goliath's own sword, and, likely because it was too unwieldy for his boyish hands, laid it up later as a trophy in the tabernacle of God. Years afterwards, when he was on his keeping as a fugitive from the persecution of King Saul, he found himself weaponless, and asked the priest Achimelech to provide him with a sword. The priest, said: « Lo, here is the sword of Goliath, the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of the Terebinth; if thou wilt take this, take it, for there is none other but this ». And David said: << There is none like that; give it me». There are times in life when a few hackneyed lines of poetry (not artistically excelling doggerel) set to an old tune deeply move us with the memories it breathes. The history of Teignmouth was, in the minds of its alumni, woven into such a poem and such a tune. One feast day an Irish student from Limerick, Father John D. MacNamara (r863-1929), who had been in the same class as Father Murray at Teignmouth, went to his room and wrote the Teignmouth Song. Admittedly it was not perfect poetry but it brought the thoughts of Teignmouth and its happy days back to many an ageing Redemptorist. Songs of intrinsic value for the moment lost appeal and this one was welcomed in the words of David : « There is none like that; give it me». Unfortunately the compiler ,of this appreciation - himself claiming only the school tie of Esker - remembers, and in mutilated form, only a part of the Teignmouth Song : «When you're far far away from St. Joseph's, Far away o'er the wild ocean's roar, Then dear confreres remember those dear student days, Which we passed ere our young days were o'er. Though many be broken by labour and trial And some will have lain down to rest, Fondest thoughts of the days that are past come awhile, A wakening sweet memories and blest )) . The student who wrote the « diary )) - he called it a diary when in reality it was a jotting down of reminiscences - mentioned « a piecemeal exodus )) of the Irish confreres from Teignmouth. He explained what he meant by this expression. During the students' vacation Father Murray went to Ireland to give a retreat. From Ireland he wrote giving instructions to the students about their journey to Belfast where the temporary Irish House of Studies was established. For travel purposes he divided the students into five batches making a senior student responsible for each batch. It was a French Redemptorist who passed this remark on Father Murray in later years: Par austerite religieuse} il ne voyageait pas en touriste. It was typical of the altruism of this man to consider that others had tastes differing from his own. There was a passage in the letter 66

arranging a special treat for one batch - the group including the students who had been ordained priests a short time previously at Teignmouth and those who were due for ordination in the following September (1901) at Belfast. This group was told << to remain for some days at Clapham and to avail of the opportunity to see the sights of London n. The privileged batch consisted of Father J ames P. Collier (later much appreciated in Ireland as a pulpit orator and retreat master), Father John MacHugh, Reverend Brother Patrick Hartigan (Provincial 1915 to 1924), Reverend Brother Marcus MacGrath and Reverend Brother William O'Sullivan. The last named, unexpectedly but deservedly, merits more than a passing mention in this chapter. Father William O'Sullivan was born in England in 1875 where his parents were temporarily living. His father died in England and Willie returned when only a baby to Limerick. In 1893 he entered the novitiate at ~ishop Eton. As a young priest he left for the Philippines to become a member of the first foundation there in 1906. Later in 1910 he was tran­ sferred to Australia and remained there until he returned to Ireland in 1938. He died at Limerick in 1949. During his travels and his missionary work Father Willie, after the manner of the Medieval monks, patched to­ gether a sheaf of pages and, more in the form of graffiti than connected statement, literally scrawled his reminiscences on them. These « scratchings n were useful signposts to independent sources of information which helped considerably the writing of this chapter. Father Willie has this title-page to his reminiscences. « Leaves from a C.SS.R. 'Diary'- Events of a Life in Two Hemispheres. Begun St. Joseph's, Teignmouth, 1894; copied and continued other dates, other places. Perso­ nal object: to save some busy chronista trouble n. Certainly this charitable object has been to a good extent realized. Incidentally, and unconsciously on the part of the author, the 'diary' proves that Father Murray appreciated Father Willie's exuberant good humour. Father Willie in his turn never loses a chance to recall to his readers that « Father Murray, my old Prefect - now Superior General - was Deacon at my first Mass in Clonard, September 23, 1901 n. . It will be remembered that the batch to which Father Willie belonged when leaving Teignmouth for Belfast went to Clapham « to see the sights of London n. They spent ten happy days in the Capital and Father Willie comments : « We were the first to leave Teignmouth and the last to arrive in Belfast. And u;hat sort of surroundings did we come to? It would take too long to answer that question, let somebody else do it. We were welcomed to Clonard Monastery by Father Patrick Gri:ffith, the Rector (he was the founder of the house), and by our Prefect, Father Murray n. « And what sort of surroundings did we come to? n The question posed suggests a note on the rise and character of tl;le most aggressively interesting of Irish cities with its people of virile speech. However, the more .extended treatment of the religious background of Belfast is left to the next chapter which deals with the origin of Clonard Monastery and Father Murray's part in the apostolate there. Belfast is one of those nineteenth century cities that developed too ra­ pidly to leave time for planning or the graces of gradual growth. In the last quarter of the eighteenth century it had a population of about fifteen­ thousand. About 1830 the number of citizens stood at 53,000. In 188o the number had grown to 207,671. By .I930 it had almost doubled that number. To-day it counts a population approaching 45o,ooo. It ranks as the second largest city in Ireland and the tenth largest in the islands of Great Britain and Ireland. A bulky population is concentrated around its City boundaries. Indeed it is safely estimated that about half the people of « Ireland's six North Eastern Counties of contention » are resident in and around Belfast. Belfast grew with speed from a small town to a large industrial city. The makers of it were in the main concerned to raise not a beautiful city but a town for workers. However, there were in this hard-headed community of builders a few people who appreciated that beauty itself is the highest form of utility. A number of buildings were finely conceived and wide steets of late Georgian houses were built. But only a remnant of this beauty has survived the later more intense utilitarian craze. Belfast itself is not a city of artistic excellence but fortunately for the Redemptorist students - whose recreation at this period consisted of walks and a number of yearly excursions - it is situated in a position which for natural beauty and variety compares with the best in Europe. The centre of the city is less than two miles from a contour of richly coloured encircling hills. To the contemplative religious soothed by the charm of nature they bring to mind the prayer of the psalmist : cc I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help ». From MacArt's Fort on Cave Hill the natural features of the surrounding area can be studied with satisfaction. There is a commanding view of the fine expanse of Belfast Loch. Over the rolling hills of Antrim one gets a glimpse of Loch N eagh, the largest lake in Ireland and England. It is also possible to see Slemish, one of the holy hills of Ireland because tradition identifies it with the place, mentioned in St. Patrick's Confession, where in boyhood he herded flocks and prayed constantly. When the students came from Teignmouth to Clonard Monastery, Belfast had but recently gained recognition as a City. However, it had already an unenviable and, it must be admitted, largely undeserved repu­ tation. for religious bigotry. Undeserved - in the sense that there was anything like continuous and open sectarian strife. This had only been in evidence at widely separated periods. Up to the middle of the nineteenth century the grouping of Protestants and Catholics into rival camps was not at all pronounced. It is a most pleasant historical memory that the first Catholic Church in Belfast, St. Mary's, was built in 1783 largely with Protestant support and the Protestant Volunteers paraded in strength, and marched with their Catholic fellowcitizens, to attend the first Mass to be celebrated there. Towards the building of St. Patrick's 68

Catholic Church in r8rr no less than £ r,7rr out of a total of £ 2,8rr subscribed W::!S given by the Protestant citizens. Of this brighter side of Belfast something more will be said in the next chapter. The question, << What sort of surroundings did we come to? H has been of set .purpose answered too widely but the answer would be incomplete without a word on the most typical institution of Orange Ulster and of Belfast - the twelfth of July. Everyone in Belfast and the Northern counties has heard the story - it is sometimes told by Protestants making fun of themselves - about the dying child whose loyal mind was workin' on the Twelfth day to come, « for he passed away on the vigil of that great Orange festival. He called for his wee Orange Drum and his wee sash. He just hit the drum one wake wee dunt, an' sez he: 'To hell with the Pope'; and with the sacred prayer on his lips he fell back dead on the pilla' an' flew straight to the Gates of Glory>>. The twelfth of July, the Orange drum, and the vvee sash are all parts of the solemn ritual considered necessary to celebrate worthily the Battle of the Boyne. This battle was fought between William of Orange (King William III of England) and the exiled King James II. James secured financial aid from Louis XIV of France and went to Ireland where he had many followers. William crossed to Ireland to oppose him. They met at the river Boyne and the battle took place July r (July 12, new style), r6go. With grim incongruity the Protestant Orangemen of Belfast and the surrounding districts celebrate the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne in accordance with the papal reformation of the Calendar. More absurdly they celebrate it as a resounding victory over the Pope when in point of fact the sympathy of the Vatican was, by an accident of history, on the side of William. His victory was regarded as the lesser of two evils since Pope Innocent XI had not approved the policy of Louis XIV (30). The Orange Order; with its Orange Lodges, was founded to keep alive the unfortunate pseudo-religious bigotry which celebrations of this type help to perpetuate. To get some idea of the religious fanaticism awakened by « The Twelfth H it is instructive to hear a description of the celebration of this day from a gifted Protestant writer, Richard Hayward. « Visitors to Belfast at that time of the year H he recommends, << should not fail to witness this great expression of faith in the ideals of the Orange Order. They will see a seemingly endless procession of earnest,serious-faced men, marching four-abreast, every man in his best suit and every man with his Orange Sash slung proudly across his chest. At intervals, marking the point where each lodge begins, a gaily-coloured banner will be held aloft between two poles, and on these banners will be seen painted scenes from Orange and Biblical history. And as well as seeing, they will hear - of a surety, they will hear. For at frequent intervals there are bands of every

(3o) Pope Innocent XI died August rr, 1689. The Pontificate of Alexander VIII lasted from October 6, 1689 until February 1, 1691. During this period, however, the Vatican policy regarding France was still that of Pope Innocent. description- brass bands, pipe bands, flute bands and the real old Lambeg­ gers. The noise is terrific, and infectious as the measles. For each band is oblivious of every other band, and since the distance between each is never great, the combined sound of perchance a dozen unrelated tunes can be imagined. But indeed it cannot be imagined. It must be heal-d. And of all the bands, the Lambeggers alone are of the real vintage. Nothing in the world is quite like the Lambeg band. As an instrument for the production of rhythmic noise it is unique. A battalion of pneumatic drills would be like an infants' choir beside it ... The drums are beaten with schoolmaster's canes, and no drummer is ·worth his salt who does not produce two livid semicircles of his own heart's blood at each side of his instrument; for thus, with the laceration of his knuckles, does he best beat out his defiance of all those worldly powers .that conspire against the Throne of England. A visitor ... lost in wonder at the whole proceedings, once enquired of a local onlooker about the meaning of the procession ... But this proces­ sion: does it celebrate some local event? - Local event I roared the outraged man, Local event! Ah, for God's sake away home an' read yer Bible!>> (31). In another of his books on Ireland, Richard Hayward (writing as a Protestant aiming at impartiality), has these pointed references to the Battle of the Boyne : << Ireland in r6go moved into the vast arena of European politics and became the battleground on which was decided a titanic issue between Louis the Fourteenth of France and William and Mary of England. James the Second of England, ]ames of the Fleeing as the scornful Irish called him, was a shiftless creature whose lack of tact cost him his throne, and who, years before, had set the Ulster Protestants against him by his short-sighted machinations. Rebellion against these measures was imminent, and Louis hatched a plot to draw William of Orange away from England to fight James in Ireland, during which time France would gain control of the seas, blockade. England, starve William of. supplies and beat him to the ground. This is clear enough, though it failed to work out that way, but the campaign became complicated by the deep enmity which existed between Louis and the Vatican. The Battle of the Boyne was really fought to decide whether a Protestant or a Roman Catholic should occupy the English throne, but we are presented with the thoroughly Irish situation of a Protestant Dutchman fighting a Roman Catholic Scotsman, in Ireland, for i:he possession of the crown of England, with all the influence and money of His Holiness the Pope thrown in on the side of the Protestant ! In Ireland it is impossible to discuss this fantastic business with either side, for the temperature rises so suddenly that the mercury of unreason shatters the thermometer of common sense, but an unknown versifier, with the detached and objective vision of an enquiring stranger to our shores, provided me with a humourous little jingle, that has never yet failed to save my skin, even in the most threatening atmosphere :

(31) Ulster, p. 54· 70

« King William was a Dutchman, same as Kruger, I suppose, He was married to a Papist and had a Roman nose; Yet in yearly jubilation many worthy people join 'Cause a Dutchman beat a Scotsman at the Irish River Boyne : And we're told to keep the mem'ry green, or orange, fierce and hot, Of this darling little battle 'twixt a Dutchman and a Scot >>. It wasn't quite as simple as that, but it's a good little jingle anyway (32). From the serio-comic background of Orange. fanaticism it will be a pleasant relief to get one more view of Father Murray as Prefect of Students. This time the impression of him is given by Father John Carr, one of the oldest living members of the Irish Province. After a year in Teignmouth Father Carr continued his preparation for the priesthood under Father Murray in Belfast. « Most of my impressions of Father Murray n he writes, « were received when he was my Prefect, for a year in Teignmouth and for several years in Belfast. He struck me as being a deeply spiritual man, who was always under the sway of the great truths of religion and never lost sight of them. I would often say to myself that I never inet a man who had less of the old Adam in 4im. In fact, somehow I could never imagine Father Murray committing a fully deliberate venial sin. He was steeped in the ascetic principles of St. Alphonsus, and he always gave the impression of carrying them out to the letter. « His faith was intense, especially where his priesthood was concerned. This could be seen whenever he officiated at the altar, or stood in the pulpit, or sat in the confessional. « In those far off days, the students went to confession to the Prefect, and many a time I said to myself that I never knelt to a confessor in whom I felt the priest - the Alter Christus - more vividly, When he spoke a few words of advice - especially when he pronounced so slowly and softly the form of absolution - he seemed to fill you with the same sense of awe which filled himself >>.

VIII. BELFAST: CLONARD MoNASTERY (rgoo-rgo7)

Do:wn from the heart o' hills Conn's river comes, By farm and daisied field to :where Are ruined homes in fire aflare And freedom's friends of peace despair, When sound the sullen drums. - From a poem by Alice Milligan, :written in 1922, during the last large scale Belfast pogrom.

For seven years after leaving Teignmouth, Clonard Monastery, Belfast, is to be the scene of Father Murray's labours. His apostolate brought him into contact with religious circumstances that are unique in Ireland. His

(32) Leinster, p. 234. 7I native Donegal had in his day, and still has considerable pockets of Protestants but in 1900 Belfast had already become the chief urban centre of Irish Protestantism. A thirty-mile radius of Belfast contains about half of the whole Church of Ireland Protestants and about seventy per cent of Irish Presbyterians. Yet even in the six northern counties of Ireland, at present under the Stormont administration, the Catholics form the largest single denomination. They are a third of the whole population (33). The Presbyterians of Belfast and the northern counties are Calvinists of the Scottish type. The Protestants of the Episcopal Church of Ireland (which until the sixties of the last century was the legally established religion) are not Lutheran. Purely Lutheran Protestantism gained no adherents in Ireland after the Reformation. The main claim of the Protestant Church of Ireland is that it has brought to life once again the ancient Irish Episcopal Church in the exact form in which St. Patrick founded it. Due to Protestant reforming efforts the faith Patrick preached has been winnowed and freed from the chaff of later Roman errors and superstitions. In Belfast City about one in every four of the population is a Catholic. According to the census of 1951 it had a total population of 443,67r. The Catholic population was rrs,o29. When Father Murray came from Teign­ mouth to Belfast in 1900 the city had a total population of about 30o,ooo and this included 75,000 Catholics. The Redemptorist foundation at Clonard, which at that date was less than four years old, was the main centre of spiritual ministration and enlightenment for these Catholics. We must now turn to give a brief account of the origin of Clonard Monastery and the work of its Confraternities. Father Murray's seven years in Belfast are inseparably bound up with the rise of Clonard and the progress of its apostolate. For three years as Rector (r904-1907) he guided with practical directions the building of the permanent church. For the greater part of Belfast Catholics, and over a period of half a century, this church has been a supreme source of spiritual consolation. The beginning of the Redemptorist foundation in Belfast took place on the feast of All Saints, November r, r8g6, when Father Patrik Griffith and Father W alter Lambert took temporary possession of a building called Clonard House. A bare room served as a chapel and Father Griffith said Mass before a picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour in the presence of a small congregation. A short time later the community of two Fathers was increased to four. The new foundation served the most densely industrialized area of Belfast. In those days work began early in the mills. After two hours there was a break of an hour for breakfast. A Mass at Clonard was so arranged that the workers could attend it during this respite. When at 8 a.m. the mill horn sounded for breakfast there was a rush for Clonard where

(33) These statistics are based on a: reliable Protestant source of information, a pamphlet entitled Irish Protestantism: to-day and to-morrow. It is a demographic study by R.P. McDermott and D.A. Webb, published by A.P.C.K. 72

Mass began five minutes later. After Mass there was a hurried meal and the workers were back at the mills by 9 a.m. On Sundays as many public Masses as possible were provided for the people and there was an overflow congregation at each of them. At best the chapel at Clonard House could accommodate only a small number of worshippers. More space was urgently needed for the crowds who could find no room. The Fathers had been planning to meet - at least to some more comfortable extent - the needs of these people. On Easter Sunday, April r8, r8g7, they had ready for public worship a plain temporary church which seated nine hundred people. It was now necessary to provide a suitable monastic home for the Redemptorist community which all this time occupied Clonard House. The foundation stone of the monastery was blessed and laid on the feast of Our Lady's Assumption, r8g8, by Most Reverend Dr. Henry, Bishop of Down and Connor. The community took up residence in it, May 2, rgoo - just about three months before Father Murray came to Clonard as Prefect of Students. In the course of an article on the completed monastery, Belfast's Catholic daily The Irish News said: << In this noble pile God's work will go on, it is to be hoped, for centuries to come; from it spiritual blessings will flow on our people and to it their children will turn as of old they turned to the ancient monasteries of Bangor and Clonard (34). They will come to modern Clonard as to a mother and a guardian n. The erection of the temporary Church and the completion of the permanent monastery prepared the way for the << Perpetual Mission >> which began in Clonard during the closing years of the last century and has gone on increasing in. vigour and scope ever since. That Mission was effectively strengthened by the foundation, successively, of the Confraternities for boys,. men and women. A boys' Confraternity - to be immediately followed by a Confraternity for men - was started under the guidance of Father Patrick Gri:ffith July 30, r8g7. By the end of r897 the mens' Confraternity numbered 740 members and the boys' division had soo members. At the present time membership of the Clonard Holy Family Confraternity - men and boys included - approaches the ten thousand mark. The Clonard Confraternity for women, under the patronage of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour and St. Alphonsus, was established by Father Gri:ffith June 20, r8g7. At the first meeting there were seven hundred members present. To-day the membership is about eight thousand. Such was the state of Redemptorist progress at Clonard when in

(34) The Irish Abbey of Bangor was situated on the southern shore of Belfast Lough. Its founder was the sixth century St. Comgall. From Bangor, Saints Columbanus and Gall left, the former to found Luxeuil and Bobbio, the latter to become an apostle of Switzer­ land and founder of the Abbey of St. Gall. - The Monastic school of Clonard was situated on the river Boyne which almost exactly marks the division between the geographical northern and southern halves of Ireland. The founder of this school - outstanding in s1xtr. century Ireland - was St. Finnian who won wide recognition for his expositions of Sacred Scripture. 73

1900 Father Murray and the students arrived there. Every part of the Apostolate carried on in the spiritual power house of Belfast won his admiration but the Holy Family Confraternity had a place apart in his heart. At every period of his Redemptorist career the Limerick and Belfast branches of this Confraternity were sources of holy joy to him. In 1957 the Editor of RIS published some facts about the Apostolic labours in the Irish Province. The General Emeritus wrote him from Limerick a note of thanks making this remark about the work of the Holy F~mily Confraternities, ((Est miraculum a J.M.J. et B.M.V. de P.S. operatum ad rogatum sanctorum Fundatorum, Limerici Patris Bridgett et Belfast Griflith. Deus voluit iterum patefacere Se auctorem esse omnis boni, nosque machinas in manibus Eius ad operandum per Ipsum et cum Ipso et in Ipso, cui omnis honor et gloria ». Together with the office of Prefect of Students, Father Murray also held the chair of Moral Theology at Clonard. In this capacity he was prepared - on rarest occasions - to give a solution which at first sight appeared not to tally with received opinion in the schools. Once, for instance, he posed the question : (( Is it, in all circumstances, a serious sin for a private individual to kill a landlord? » Resting on the experience of life as he had known it in Donegal the class got from him the clear indication that there were times and places in which the killing of a landlord was no murder. In 1902 Father Murray made his first visit to Rome. In that year Most Reverend Father Raus celebrated the Golden Jubilee of his profession. Father Andrew Boylan, the Provincial, decided to accept an invitation to be present at the festivities in Rome and he took the Prefect of Students as his companion. Speaking about this visit more than thirty years afterwards Father Murray said: ((That was the one occasion I made a tour of Rome. With Father Boylan I went to see some celebrated churches and a few other places of interest ». In April, 1904, Father Murray was appointed Rector of Clonard Monastery. His first lecture to the community drew the lines strongly on charity as the most important feature of Redemptorist life. (( One hears » he said, (( at times of a possible clash between the letter of the Rule and charity. If such a clash occurs the guiding principle is clear - charity must always prevail ». Father Murray considered that Irish Redemptorists owed a special debt of pietas to Most Reverend Father Raus because under him their Province was erected. In July 1904 he had the privilege of welcoming the Superior General to Clonard when he came there for the Canonical Visitation. His Paternity, with his Secretary, Father Reuss (35), remained in Clonard for

(35) Father Francis Xavier Reuss (1842-1925) was distinguished as a linguist and an epigraphist. He acted as secretary to three Redemptorist Generals, Fathers Mauron, Raus and Murray. He published a number of Collections of Latin poems which were appreciated by experts. He was requested to write some of the hymns for the Breviary and Cardinal Mercier was pleased when he agreed to write those which were included in the Office of Our Lady Mediatrix of Graces. 74 eight days and both were edified at the sight of thousands of members of the Holy Family Confraternity receiving Holy Communion on Sunday morning. Later that same year the Rector of Clonard was happy to welcome Father John Herrmann and a group of French Redemptorist students who came to spend their vacation in Clonard. Father Murray and Father Patrick Kilbride (the Prefect of Students who succeeded him) did everything they could to show them real Alphonsian hospitality. The charity of the Rector of Clonard went out to them all the more because in their own country they were facing a serious crisis. Radical elements in the French Government sought excuses to break the Concordat with the Holy See while other members were more or less indifferent and too ready to yield to political opportunism. The desired excuse was found on April 24, rgo4, when the Prime Minister of France, M. Combes, paid an official visit to King Victor Emmanuel III at the Quirinal. Because of the estrangement which had lasted between the Quirinal and the Vatican ever since the Piedmontese troops breached the walls of the Eternal City on September 20, r87o, this visit provoked a protest which Cardinal Merry del Val directed to the governments in diplomatic relations with the Holy See. The French Prime Minister used this protest as an excuse for the withdrawal of his ambassador. This happened in May rgo4 and a short time later - pretending to take offence at a decision of Pope Pius X which was purely ecclesiastical- he broke off diplomatic relations with the Holy See. At the time Father Herrmann came to Clonard, Redemptorists and other French priests and seminarists were suffering many annoyances from the civil power. It was not surprising then that the charity and sympathy of Father Murray went out to the French confreres in their hour of trial. As a result of the difficulties that have been mentioned Father Herrmann, the Prefect of Students of the Paris Province, five professors and nineteen students from that same Province had their temporary home at Bishop Eton, Liverpool. Other Paris students accepted the hospitality of the confreres of the Lyons Province in their House of San Bernardo, the Republic of Chile. In August rgo4 Father Murray secured the settlement of a question which had been a cause of trouble to the community at Clonard since the beginning of the foundation. In the grounds which now form the pleasant garden of the monastery, there was a pond which was an eyesore. It was the property of the Clonard Mill Company. The Fathers made a number of efforts to buy the property but always failed. The Company demanded an exorbitant price - at one time £2ooo and later on £r,soo. Finally Father Murray, aided by the advice of Mr. Frank Kerr as solicitor, carried through the purchase of the pond for £8oo. Under the direction of Father Murray and Father Patrick Kilbride, the students, members of the Holy Family Confraternity and some hired labourers set to work to transform the mill-dam and pond into a garden. In the course of time the plan for which Father Murray prepared the way produced the best laid out garden of any of the houses in the Irish Province. 75

Commenting on the scheme of transformation the chronicler of the period wrote: << Lacus inferus tandem mutatus est in locum refrigerii ». The Passionists are the only other religious priests labouring in Belfast. Father Murray wa,s anxious that the bond of union beetween them and ourselves would be an example of charity and friendship to all others. A General Mission in the Churches of Belfast during the Lent of rgo6 gave him an opportunity to put this policy into practice. With another Father he preached the mission in the Passionist Church and the Passionists occupied the pulpit at Clonard.

IX. IRISH PROVINCIAL (rgoJ-rgog)

Aquae multae non potuerunt extinguere charitatem, nee £lumina obruent illam. Many waters cannot quench charity, neither can the floods drown it.

Father Murray was destined for higher office. An unusual event brought about his appointment as Provincial before his first term as Rector was completed. On March 8, rgo7, Father Andrew Boylan received official news that he had been appointed Bishop of Kilmore in Ireland. Father Boylan had been Bursar of Maynooth College when in r887 he decided to enter the Congregation. In r8g8, when Ireland was erected as a Province, Father Raus appointed him Provincial. The nomination of Father Murray as successor to Father Boylan took place March rg, rg'o7. The Belfast Catholic daily reporting the news said: «The appointment of Very Reverend P. Murray, C.SS.R., Clonard, to the exalted position of Provincial in Ireland of the great Order to which he belongs will be welcome news to his many friends in Belfast. As a preacher he is well known to the readers of The Irish News, as on several occasions his eloquent sermons in the cause of charity have appeared in our columns >>. Father Murray's departure from Clonard - he had been both Rector and Director of the Womens' Confraternity - calls for a survey of the effect of the Apostolate of the Fathers in Belfast on the life of the city. That Belfast is to-day (more than most European cities) a haven of peace, is due in no small measure to Father Murray and the confreres who laboured there sixty years ago. They preached the Gospel of Christian Charity which gave the sorely tried Catholic citizens a spirit of patient endurance in face of day to day discrimination, where material benefits are concerned, and the odium religiosum which is a dire heritage of the Reformation. The poem cited at the beginning of chapter VIII visions the pure waters of a river, symbolically named after an ancient Irish Chieftain, coursing through the beautiful countryside that surrounds Belfast and flowing through a city of ruined homes and stricken families. The picture is a sad and a true one but it belongs to the past. There are solid hopes that it witnesses a history which will not repeat itself. « Many waters cannot quench charity ». In his public addresses to the communities after his appointment as Provincial, Father Murray sounded an austere note. Some prepared themselves in mind and soul to live under a severe Superior. The preparation was unnecessary. Admittedly Father Murray was a strict Superior insisting on exact observance of the rule but in his personal dealings with the members of the Province he was kindness itself.

N ala Episcapari (rgo8)

Father Murray had been Provincial for only a year when he had to suffer three months of severe anxiety. Dr. Henry Henry, Bishop of Down and Connor (the diocese in which Belfast is situated), died suddenly. At a meeting of the parish priests of the diocese after the month's mind, March 30, rgo8, the voting for the selection of a new bishop was: Very Reverend Dr. Laverty, Vicar Capitular and parish priest of St. Matthew's, Ballymacarrett- 25 votes; Very Reverend Father Patrick lVIurray, C.SS.R., Provincial Superior, Mount St. Alphonsus, Limerick - 25 votes; Father John Tohill, parish priest, Cushendall- 4 votes. Father Murray at once pleaded every possible reason to secure that his appointment to the bishopric would not be made. But there was week after week of suspense. His worries were increased by the knowledge that there were two parties among the clergy of the diocese and his election had the support of one party. Finally the Irish newspapers of July 14, rgo8, carried a telegram from Reuter's news agency to this effect: « In deciding between the three ec­ clesiastics nominated by the parish priests of the diocese of Down and Connor, Propaganda acted on the representation of the bishops of the province of Armagh that the appointment of either the Very Reverend Dr. Laverty or the Very Reverend Patrick Murray, C.SS.R., might serve to perpetuate the recent divisions in the diocese ». Referring to Father Murray the press reports said : « It will be remembered that at the recent election for the bishopric of Down and Connor he shared with Very Reverend Dr. Laverty the honour of being Dignissimus in the terna submitted to Rome ». It so happened that Father John Tohill, who had received the least number of votes, was appointed to the See of Down and Connor. By anticipating a few years we get a pleasant view of Bishop Tohill and Father Murray, on an occasion of great importance in the history of the Irish Province. That occasion was the solemn opening of Clonard Church of the Most Holy Redeemer. On Saturday, September 30, rgrr, Father Murray - by this time Superior General for over two years - blessed the church. The next day, Rosary Sunday, His Paternity said Mass at the High Altar of the new church and afterwards went to assist at the last Mass to be offered in the old temporary church. At II o'clock he returned to the new church and with his own hand rang the bell to summon the people 77 for the first solemn Mass in that House of God which has ever since been to them a Gate of Heaven. The solemn Mass began at 12 o'clock and Bishop Tohill preached a sermon which gave interesting sidelights on the origin of the Clonard foundation. As far back as the fifties, he told the people, there was question of bringing the Redemptorists to Belfast. At that time the proposal was to give them a foundation near to Queen's University College so that Catholic students attending lectures there would benefit by their apostolate. Difficulties arose and this proposal did not materialize. Twenty years later another effort to get the Fathers to Belfast failed. In r8gs when Bishop Henry came to rule the diocese of Down and Connor he was determined to bring the Redemptorists no matter what dif­ ficulties stood in the way. In the cc Falls n- the area surrounding Clonard­ there was even at that date a population of 3o,ooo Catholics. To provide places of worship for that considerable population there were only the two parish churches, the one dedicated to St. Peter and the other dedicated to St. Paul. Five Masses were celebrated in each of them on the Sundays. Although there were overflow congregations at all the Masses the number was not at all sufficient to meet the needs of the people. cc It would hardly be an exaggeration to say» concluded Dr. Tohill, cc that even on a Sunday when it rained very heavily the two Catholic churches in the Falls had as many worshippers as all the Presbyterian· and Episcopalian churches of Belfast put together n. After the Mass Dr. Tohill and a representative gathering of the priests of Down and Connor dined in the Monastery refectory with Father Murray and the Redemptorist community. Father Murray proposed the toast of the bishop and the clergy of the diocese in what was regarded by all as a splendidly tactful and sincere speech. In reply Dr. Tohill touched in graceful language on Father Murray's determination to cling to his principle of nolo episcopari. However, remarked the bishop, he escaped ruling the diocese of Down and Connor only to find himself a few years later Superior General of a world wide Order. That was a position of greater importance and responsibility. Concluding the account of the solemn opening of Clonard Church the archivist of the Irish Province wrote : cc Clonard Church is a monument to Most Reverend Patrick Murray. Work on it began while he was Rector, as Provihcial he watched over the progress of its construction and when it was completed and dedicated he ruled the Congregation as Superior General». Appendix on

F A'l'HER EDMUND VA UGHAN

It has been mentioned that Father Edmund Vaughan was for a period the Spiritual Director of Father Murray. Father Vaughan was the last Provincial with jurisdiction over the Redemptorist Houses in Britain, Ireland, and Australia, before the erection of the Irish Province in r8g8. He was never attached to a community in Ireland and consequently the archives of the houses then in existence have only casual references to him. The Irish Provincial archives date only from r8g8 and are, likewise, without worth­ while notice on him. To make good the lack of information on Father Vaughan my Australian confrere, Father Samuel J. Boland, has kindly supplied brief jottings. Apart from a few changes they are given here exactly as they left his hand : Edmund Vaughan was born in r827 at Courtfield, the family home, the youngest of 19 children - they were giants, these Vaughans ! Since he lost both his parents while he was still a child, he grew up with the family of his eldest brother, Colonel John Francis Vaughan, so that in his earliest years he was the close companion of his more famous nephews, Herbert (later Cardinal) and Roger Bede, who was Archbishop of Sydney when Edmund brought the C.SS.R. to Australia. Edmund was already a deacon when he came to the Congregation in r849. Fellow novices of his at St. Trond were Coffin, Plunkett (36), Bridgett, Furniss. As a Missioner he does not seem to have won much renown for his preaching, but wh"en he came to Australia he was said to be a capable theologian. He had translated some of St. Alphonsus' hymns and composed some of his own, and these have remained in use down to the present. In r867 he introduced the Congregation into Scotland, becoming first Superior at Perth. This was, incidentally, the first religious house to be founded in Scotland since the Reformation. He remained in Perth until r88o, and in the following year received his nomination as Superior of the foundation to be made in Australia. Vaughan's companions in the first foundation were Frs. T. O'Farrell, J. Hegarty, H. Halson and Bros. Lawrence Watters and Daniel Gleeson (uncle of Edmund, Bishop of Maitland in later years). A foundation was made at Singleton in the Maitland diocese early in r882. It proved most unsatisfactory right from the start, as the Fathers had charge of the parish and had to combine the pastoral work with a very extensive activity on the Missions. Five years later the Singleton foundation was resigned and the community moved to the fine monastery Vaughan had built at Waratah, a suburb of Newcastle, now Mayfield. In the following year a foundation

(36) Father Plunkett was the first Irishman to enter the Redemptorist Congregation in Europe. 79 was made at a place called Ebor near Ballarat. Ebor proved as unsatisfactory as Singleton, and again it took five years of negotiation before the com­ munity could be transferred to the present site at Wendouree. These two, Waratah and Ballarat, were the only permanent foundations made in the time of Vaughan, but they are still the two best equipped houses in our Province. Vaughan is to be given much of the credit for putting the Missions on a solid foundation in Australia. The good reputation our Missions enjoy at present is certainly due in large measure to the tradition established in the beginning. During Vaughan's twelve years as Superior the work was almost without interruption. During the summer months - December to the end of February - when the heat made Missions impossible in Australia, a party of Missioners each year crossed to New Zealand. We are now reaping the benefit of the vigorous campaigning of those early years. --vaughan left Australia to become Provincial in 1894. It is worth mentioning, perhaps, that his first report to Rome strongly recommended the separation of the Provinces, with Australia going with Ireland. He died at Bishop Eton in 1908. A short extract from a letter of Mr. Joseph H. Vaughan, who looks like being the last of the line, may be of interest. He wrote it in answer to some of my own queries in 1957. ((It may interest you to know that about thirty years ago I was travelling in a train in Ireland and happened to be reading a copy of Horace's Odes which had been given to Edmund as a prize at Stonyhurst and on the flyleaf of which he had signed his name. (( There was a priest in the same carriage and we fell into conversation and it came out that he was a Redemptorist and had known and loved Father Edmund. When I showed him the book I was reading ~nd the signature he burst into tears at the memory of his old friend and told me what a wonderful man he had been ». I have found myself examples of equally warm friendships between V aughan and his confreres. One good confrere wrote of Vaughan and Fr. O'Laverty shedding tears on receiving letters from each other. Fr. Plunkett, who succeeded Vaughan as Superior in Australia, begged the Roman authorities not to separate Australia from England as long as Vaughan was Provincial. His own successor, Fr. O'Farrell, used to speak of Vaughan as 'our grand old chief'. Their correspondence continued until Vaughan's death, and O'Farrell used to quote Vaughan's opinions to Rome when there was question of important decisions about Australian affairs. Father MacDonald, the Provincial, wrote of Vaughan: ((Although he is very strict, there is no Superior more patient and sympathetic than he ».